


Drabbles and oneshots and audio

by Fjodor



Series: One-shots in one place [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bellamione Cult Discord Game, Bellamione discord, F/F, F/M, also audiobooks, crispy bellatrix, mostly standalone oneshots, or at least close to it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2019-07-18 20:26:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 22
Words: 31,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16126112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fjodor/pseuds/Fjodor
Summary: hurts





	1. Afternoon sleep

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Menzosarres](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Menzosarres/gifts).



“Sweetie?” Bellatrix heard someone say, it sounded as if they where standing over her, opening her eyes she saw that she had been right. She was now looking into her beautiful better half.

“Why are you waking me up at this unholy hour muddy?” she asked, holding a stern look.

“Unholy hour? It’s almost two, were you really planning on spending the entire day in bed?” Hermione asked her.

“I hadn’t, but now that you mention it,” Bellatrix turned on her side looking away from Hermione, “Gonna take a quick nap.”

“Un-believable,” she heard the girl say on the side of the bed. Visualising the smile that was most definably on her face, she turned back on her back to face her.

Suddenly the bedsheet started to levitate up and wrapped around her.

“Hermione, what are you doing?” she yelled out before her hands where restrained to the side of body. She couldn’t get to her wand so she was at the bidding of whatever Hermione had planned for her. but it couldn’t be that bad she though. How she had end up with a literal angel was still beyond her.

‘how had it happened,’ she suddenly though, a sharp pain suddenly shot through her forehead.

“Arggg.” She yelled out.

“Are you okay?” Hermione asked, concerned as always.

“Just a headache,” she told her not wanting to interrupt the morning that she had planned for them. They had always had fun when they were together. She honestly couldn’t remember a time that they had been apart.

Being floated into their kitchen was something that she hadn’t experienced yet, but she liked it. She wondered if she should ask Hermione if this could become her preferred form of transport. Floating in a blanket, laid out like a Roman empress.

Before she could ask, Hermione had placed her in a chair and released her.

“Would you like some pancakes?” she was asked.

“You know that I’m always up for some packsacks, pet.”

“that’s good, I made some earlier…”

-

“Who’s she talking to?” one of the new guards asked.

“Oh her,” the old guard said, “Lestrange? When Voldemort was defeated something snapped in her. I’ve been told that she vacated her mind, wend into complete denial and started seeing faces and hearing voices. About five months ago she started mentioning Hermione. We think that she is talking to a made-up version of late Minister Granger.”

Looking back at the prisoner, he felt a slight amount of pity for her. before he remembered the myriad of people that she had tortured or killed. “Serves her right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hurts


	2. Shielding the innocent

Clink.

Hermione looked up, looking at the window. ‘That’s strange,’ she though, ‘there isn’t anything that is supposed to be able to hit the windows here.’

Putting her book down on the bed she walked towards the windows that faced outwards on Grimmauld Place. As it was dark it took a while before she noticed the dark figure standing in the shadows across the road.

‘Who the hell is…’

Click.

She saw a small blue flash radiate on the window, the protection charms doing their work.

She couldn’t quite see who was standing in the dark shadows. It looked like Dumbledore had used his Deluminator down below. The streetlights had been turned off.

The figure was still standing there not throwing rocks anymore. They just seemed to stand there.

Curious if anyone else had noticed them, Hermione left her room and went to the kitchen downstairs to find the place in a flurry of panic. There where some parts of the conversation that she was able to follow; “…their family, can…”, “…her actions…”, “…poor Alice…”.

They hadn’t noticed her in the beginning, getting louder and louder. Discussing a bunch of stuff that was mostly them yelling louder and louder. After a few moments she locked eyes with Molly who shushed the others.

“Hermione, sweetie are you looking for someone?” she asked.

“I was just coming here to ask if you guys had seen the figure standing on the other side of the road.”

“So, she’s really there.” Sirius said, putting his hands to his head.

“Shat doesn’t matter now, Sirius.” Lupin said, gulping the rest of his tea. “She can’t enter even if she wanted.”

“shush,” Molly said pulling her out if the kitchen. “I think that it would be better if you fiend the others and go to your bedroom. What were discussion here is not for your ears.”

“But, why can’t…” she started before seeing how Molly was looking. There was no discussion to begin there. “I’ll go find the others.” She said walking towards the stairs.

Plop.

From the foyer they could hear someone apparating into the hallway.

“Good evening, Molly, Hermione.” Albus Dumbledore said walking past them in the hallway, “Quite an existing evening wouldn’t you say?” He opened the kitchen’s door and silence fell as he entered there.

“Please Hermione, go to your room and find the others.” Molly said following Albus into the room.

Sighing she walked back upstairs to look for the Weasley twins. They had been know to hang out near the condemned second sitting room.

“Fred? George? Are you in here.” She asked standing in the entrance. Not wanting to enter the domain of the Twins. There were also a number of dark magical objects in there. It had also been infected by a number of magical creatures that had nestled in there in the years that it had been abandoned.

“What do you want?” She heard over her shoulder.

“Will you guys stop that please.” She said jumping nearly a foot in the air.

“Stop doing what?” they asked in unison.

“Appearing out of nowhere.”

“It’s not our fault if you,” Fred or George said, “Can’t do it yourself.” The other finished.

“Whatever, could one of you find Ron?” she asked, “Your mom told me to gather all of us in Ginny’s and mine’s bedroom.

“Did she tell why?”

“She said that they where discussing things that where not for my ears.”

“Well, we will try to find them or we could listen in.” they told her.

“We could but it would be quite cruel if we leave the others out of it.” She said, walking already upstairs to the third floor sitting room that had cleared out in the first week that Hermione had arrived. Ginny had taken a liking to the room. The old furniture that had been placed in there was of the early Victorian era and was well preserved. For its age.

“Ginny could you come down?” she said walking into the room, Ginny already had been vast asleep on one of the sofa’s when she entered.

“What do you want?” Ginny, said sleepily waking from her sleep.

“Your mother wanted us too all join into our room.” She told her.

Ginny rose from the sofa with her blanket around her. “Fine but I’m taking the blanket.”

“I’m sure that’s fine.”

She and Ginny walked back downstairs. Well mostly Hermione was doing the walking, Ginny had been falling back asleep when they reached the second floor landing.

Opening the Bedroom door she saw that the other Weasley children had already arrived.

“Hermione!” Ron Belted out, before noticing his almost sleeping sister that she was now almost carrying into the room. The Twins reached over and lifted out of her hands and into her bed.

“Shush you loud bastard.” She told Ron walking past him, looking out of the window looking if the figure was still standing there.

There she was, standing in the same place. Hermione still couldn’t make out the face or any other recognisable features.

“Hermione, what’s going on?” Ron then asked whispery.

“There is someone out there that got all of the adults in a jiffy,” she told him.

“Is that why there all up in the tits down there.” One of the twins told her.

He too was looking in the direction of the mysterious, woman.

“Has she moved from that spot?” he asked Hermione.

“No, that is where she was when I first noticed her. She had been throwing rocks at my window for a bit before I first saw her though.” She said, remembering that that tidy bity.

‘If she had been able to throw rocks at her window it meant that she new that there was a building here. And if she knew there was a building here Dumbledore must have told her.’ she reasoned.

‘But if he trusted her, why was there such an uproar. And why had they been banished to the bedroom.’ She wondered. ‘Might this person be dangerous?’ She asked herself.

“Hey, look they are moving closer.” The other twin said.

The mysterious person was walking closer, still under the layer of darkness that had been thrown by the exception of the light. She still couldn’t make out the face but she could see that there was a large head of hair was crowing the head.

There was a faint glow that suddenly appeared, it looked like someone had opened the door.

“Get to the stairway,” she whispered running over to the door. Opening the bedroom quietly she rounded over to the other side of the hall and kneeled down angling her vision to catch a vision of the mystery woman.

“Albus,” a singsong voice called out through the house, “how good of you to invite me to your fun organisation.”

“Bella, I assure you that the pleasure is all mine.” He told her.

“Is my nephew here?”

“He is, but I’m afraid that he is currently refusing to appear right now.”

“such a shame, You would think that after spending nearly thirteen years as functional flatmates, they would be happy to see you again?”

It seemed as if Dumbledore was about to interrupt her, but she continued on. Clearly in love with her own voice.

“But no matter to that, I am here as you had asked, unarmed and willing to perform the unbreakable vow if it keeps my family safe.”

“I’m happy to see that you have come around Bella.” Albus said.

“Again not why I’m here. As I told you my beliefs are very much the same, I’m here for my family. We might disagree but I’m not fighting them. It would be against the code of the ancient and  most noble House of Black.” She said in a noble voice, with all the extra stuff that came with it.

“Still, family is important.”

“Albus your starting to bore me,” Bella told him already sounding distracted when she finished that sentence.

“Alright, but as you will know we need a third person here, to perform the spell.” He told her.

“Albus, I might have spend the last couple of years going mad in that rachet place. But I can still remember the simple process of casting spells.”

“Could I leave you here for a moment before I fetch someone to perform the spell?” he asked her.

“Albus, when have I ever done something to endanger you?”

“I’m not worried for my safety, Bellatrix, its theirs that concerns me.”

“I promise that I won’t hex or curse anyone till you get back here.” She said.” Turning away from Dumbledore looking over the paintings.

Hermione saw Dumbledore turn and walk back to the kitchen she stood back up. She had been a little to slow, as he looked her in the eyes and raised and eyebrow. He discreetly motioned that she should stay silent and stay put.

He entered the kitchen that had been suspiciously quite since she had been watching the meeting between Dumbledore and Bella. Now though there was a low rumble of a lot of many people talking very quietly. The door closed and the people inside where silenced.

“There was an old woman lived under the hill,” she heard the woman whisper a bit down the hall. “And if she's not gone she lives there still.” She continued a bit louder, just above the level of audibility.

“Baked apples she sold, and cranberry pies,” the woman turned to face down the hallway looking at the stairs. Walking closer Hermione wondered if she was hidden enough to be obscured to her. “And she's the old woman that never told lies.” Bella sang peeking under the curtain that had hidden the late matriarch of this branch of the Black family.

She already put her fingers in her ears prepared for the yelling that the paining had done any time it had been allowed to interact with other creature, exempting Kreacher the old family house elf.

Now though she could hear the hushed voices beneath the curtain that had been affixed the day that the order had moved in.

She had been standing there for a while before she noticed that Dumbledore had come out again. He had brought out the auror Shacklebolt, she had met him ones and he seemed to be a person with a strong moral compass.

“Bella, could I please have your attention?” Albus asked.

“Could you give us a minute? I’m trying to catch up with my aunt.” She replied popping her head from under the curtain.

“Bella, If we finish this now you can spend as much time as you want talking to her.” He said for the first letting a bit of annoyance slip into his voice.

She was sure that Bella had heard it too as she had slowed down her mumbling dramatically, really voicing out the vowels. She had the feeling that she had taken it on herself to annoy the old headmaster.

It took another two minutes of Bella slowly talking to the painting before she remerged. “Good talk, pity she wasn’t there tough.”

Albus let out a frustrated sigh.

“Could we get started then, Albus? I don’t have all night.”

“Fine, Shacklebolt I assure that you’re familiar with the spell?” he asked the auror.

“I am,” was all that the man said holding out his wand.

“Well then, what are we waiting for?” Bella said holding out her arm.

Albus slowly lifted his arm, his robe falling off his arm. Revealing a fairly scarred underarm, she wondered for a second where he had gotten those before the spell started.

When their arms touched and the grabbed hold of the other arm, a faint string of gold flew out of Shacklebolts wand. Even from a distance she could see that it stretched and imbedded into the outsides of the arms.

“Will you, Bellatrix  Black, protect and hide the knowledge that you find here from the Dark Lord in all ways?”

“I, do.” Bellatrix said proudly.

“Will you, never again use the unforgivable curses on those unable to protect themselves from it.”

“I, do.” She said slightly less bombastic

“Will you, work on the perspective you have about non-pure born wichtes and wizards, and try to better understand them.”

“I, do.”

The last time she said it was basically a whisper, barely audible above the gusts of wind above in the still abandoned part of the building. The gold ribbons that bound both of them dissipated.

“Well, I guess that’s that then.” Dumbledore, said. “would you like to join us or are you going back to the black mansion?”

“I think that I’m going to take a look around if you don’t mind Albus.”

“Well you did agree to the unbreakable vow, so you are currently not a danger to anyone in the house. Go right ahead, when you’re done, just leave through the front door. I wouldn’t advice the other exits.” He told her turning round glancing back up to Hermione, mouthing out.

‘Lock the door.’

She quickly turned round and pulled the Weasley twins with her back into the room. They had been looking trough one of their new inventions, it looked like a telescope with a ghostly eyeball floating a couple of feet in front of it.

Closing the door silently, she motioned to the twins to put a silencing charm on it.

After they had done it, Ron spoke up.

“What happened Hermione? We couldn’t leave the room. It was like someone had sealed them from the outside right after you left.

Hermione brought them back up to speed when a loud knock could be heard from the door. They shut up and looked over to door.

“Anyone in here?” could be heard.

“Humm, there must be a spell on this door.”

It was silent for a few seconds.

“ **BOO** ”

They jumped back in shock.

Laughter could be heard, from the hallway. Moving away slowly, occasionally restarting as if she had remembered what she had just done.

-

The following weeks the orders headquarters had gotten fuller and fuller, Tonks had moved in and was helping out with cleaning. They had been able to clear out most of the dark magical objects out of the rooms. They had been able to move them to the second basement of the building.

The house that Sirius’s Great Grandfather had stolen from a muggle around the 1800’s had been magickly expanded over the years. Adding a second and third basement. Above the ground there had been originally three floors when now Hermione could see about ten not counting the attic that had been stuck on top.

Currently they had cleaned out the ground and first floor. Having almost finished the with the third.

After a few weeks Harry had arrived at 12 Grimmauld Place, a bit angry that they hadn’t been able to send much in the letters that had left the house. They had explained what the order did and some of the details that the other younger inhabitants hadn’t been able to decipher.

There had also been the mystery visits of Bellatrix to the house, when she had been around the adults tried to shield them in a room to protect them. Hermione had gotten only a handful of glances at her, after the first evening. The witch had looked dreadful then, still beautiful but underfed. Like she had spend years not eating properly, unsupported by the magic that most wizards used to fix those ailments.

In the next three visits that she made Hermione saw the evolution of the shimmer of the woman to the healthy and devastatingly attractive person she became. It was only the fact that she knew of her dark past that she didn’t like her. Even if she would like her Bellatrix hated mud bloods with a passion.

She had noticed, that when she was walking back into the Blacks private Library, that her usual seat had been moved to one of the small tables that had been put in the large open space. There had also been a book left behind there. ‘The complete works of William Shakespeare.' There had been a note left in the back, on the page of the final poem of the book.

The phoenix and the turtle, an fairly unknown poem Shakespeare wrote during his late forties. She had read it before a long time ago, when she had been skimming trough his work. It talked about the funeral of a phoenix and its partner the turtledove. How they had created a perfect unity which transcended all logic and material fact.

The note read, ‘my, my, does this book hold the future I wonder?’

-

Returning from Hogwarts During the winter had been a difficult. The Weasleys had been in a constant state of worry. Mr. Weasley had been found just in the nick of time, bleeding out from what looked to be snake-bites. Harry had been able to warn Professor Dumbledore in time, and he had instructed that all of them where to be evacuated out of the castle. Not wanting difficult questions to be asked to them.

Arriving at Grimmauld Place she had been left in the kitchen when the Weasleys had jumped over to the hospital. Leaving her alone in the house with Sirius. She went to the library, looking if there was something to distract her from the moment.

Walking in there she saw a dark figure curled over, reading a book in her chair. The chair that she had taken as her favourite, the one that had been moved last summer.

“Sirius, why are you interrupting my reading time?” a voice that cut right through the silence that had been a welcome inhabitant of this room.

Hermione had stopped in her tracks, she knew that voice. It had been playing in her head on and off for the past couple of weeks.

“Have you forgotten to speak?”

“I,…” she began, trailing off as soon as she stood there, unsure where she would go from here. Not sure of entering the room was a good plan.

She didn’t know when the woman had gotten up, neither had she noticed that they had walked up to her.

“Can I help you?” she asked her, more softly than she had expected.

Looking up the dark-haired witch was standing in the doorway, a book in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. She realised that Bellatrix didn’t know who she was, or at least wasn’t aware of her muggleborn origin. Still baffled by that sharp contrast that she what she had expected, she almost just walked away.

Almost.

There was something about the witch that intrigued her. She had leaned from other members of the order and in particular professor McGonagall, that Bellatrix had been an outstanding student during her years at Hogwarts. The record for most outstanding During her OWL’s, during her NEWT’s she had been able to be on equal level as two students in recent history, Dumbledore in 1899 and then Riddle in 1945.

“Do you have a name girl?” Bellatrix asked slightly more annoyed, she had the impression that she shouldn’t keep her waiting.

“Hermione.” She let slip.

“Hermione,” the witch tried out the name, “related to the  Kontostephanos by any chance?” She asked making polite conversation.

“I don’t Believe I am.”

“Humm, pity.” Was all Bellatrix had to say, before walking back to the sitting area in the Library.

‘Weird,’ she though walking into the library and walking around the bookcases. Letting her finger trail over the book spines. Pulling out one of the older magical plays that was in the collection. It was a nice distraction from the situation at hand, she settled on the opposite side of Bellatrix.

She started to dig in, not noticing that Bellatrix hadn’t turned a page since she sat down. If she had looked over she might have noticed that Bellatrix had taken to observe her from afar.

-

Not all nights are very memorable, not all days can be recalled in perfect detail. But June thirtieth nineteen ninety seven had left an impression on her that she suspected little else could.

The Battle of the Astronomy Tower was not like any of those days. She could remember the whole night well, it had started with Harry warning her that dead heaters might try to infiltrate the castle during his and Dumbledore’s absence. She and Ron had called up the forces of Dumbledore’s Army.

They had spread themselves around the castle looking for any kind of attack to appear. It had been a long night in which not a lot happened, till there was a soft shudder that rocked the castle.

Hermione had heard it and had rushed over there not waiting for backup, she send a message trough the Galleons. She had turned the corner when she came face to face with a familiar face, one she didn’t expect to find here.

“What are you doing her Bella?” she whispered.

“What are you doing?”

“I study here, what’s your excuse?”

“I just wanted to see you again.” She said a sly smile playing on her face.

A bigger explosion could be heard from a little way over. There was a moment where the school was silent. Hermione wondered if they had gone temporarily deaf, before the yelling and screaming returned.

“I think that you should go and hide,” Bellatrix nudged her shoulder, almost dragging her into an empty classroom.

“And why should I do that?” she asked letting herself be led by the older witch.

“Because it would be a shame if you would have gotten yourself hurt.” She said. The flashes of spells and cures started to light up the corridors that spilt off this one.

“Hurry,” there was now urgency in her voice.

“Hermione look out!” a voice called out.

Nevil had rounded the corner and was running up with his wand pointed at Bellatrix’s back.

“I guess I’ll leave you here then.” She said ignoring the boy.

“Bombarda maxima!” could be heard right before everything when silent. A flash emerged from the wand obliteration the distracted witch. Leaving noting more than the hand that she had held Hermione witch. Leaving her alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nice beginning, terrible ending


	3. What a surprise meeting you

“I must say that it was a surprise for me to receive your invitation,” Hermione said entering the office off Doctor. Axelrod, he had made great strides forward in the field of Arithmancy. She had been learning from his textbooks since she had taken the elective in her third year.

“Are you really pet?” the man asked sitting back in his chair. Leaving Hermione standing in the doorway in shock.

“Bellatrix?” she whispered slamming the door closed behind her quickly to prevent anyone else from entering. She pulled out her wand to the surprised look of the face Bellatrix had taken for the occasion. Putting up a protective ward, and a few charms that would damp the sound from inside she turned back to face the disguised witch.

She found the man staring at her with a strange look of adoration that she didn’t like, she would allow it from one person and one alone.

Crossing her arms she sat down in the chair that had been standing in front of the bureau.

“Don’t I get a hug?” Bellatrix asked trough the man’s voice.

“Not if you looking like that.” She answered, holding herself back. She wanted noting more than to melt into the dark witches hug. It had become her favourite place to spend her time.

\---

They had first met during the battle of the department of mysteries. She had been running around looking for her friends when she saw the death eater standing still in front of a bookcase. Creeping up behind her she entered the hall that contained knowledge. The one place where all of the knowledge was written down and stored in a few magical volumes.

She had been a few feet behind Bellatrix when she overheard her speaking to someone. At least it sounded like it, it was more of a one-sided conversation.

“I told you guys, you’re not real…”

“…it’s written right here…”

“…it doesn’t matter…”

Hermione couldn’t make head or tails of it when she approached, her wand up high when Bellatrix suddenly turned around.

“Muddy, what a pleasure!” she yelled dropping her book and waving her wand in front of her.

“Disarm yourself and no harm will come to you.” She said, more scared than she had planned for. Bellatrix was an expert dueller. Rivalling the likes of the Dark lord and Dumbledore. There where stories that the last person to beat her in a duel had been her father when she had been fourteen, the story also said that she killed him with one of the unforgivable curses. She didn’t know how much was true of those stories but she didn’t like it that her opponent had started smiling in reaction to her demands.

“And what if I didn’t what then?” she asked her, Hermione’s brain started running into overdrive, evaluating her options, planning out possible retorts that she could use. Blanking out the situation in front of her for a second because she was thinking too much she lowered her wand a fraction.

Bellatrix saw this as an opening and closed the gap that had been between them in two quick strides. Before she could react had Bellatrix taken her wand and was now standing right in front of her face.

Hermione wanted to jump back, suddenly surprised by the appearance of the dark witch.

She couldn’t though, first she thought that Bellatrix had cast a body binding curse on her. She soon however realised that she had been enveloped in a close hug from the death eater.

Holding still she didn’t know what was happening right now, Bellatrix Lestrange Black had been known to be excessively violent toward the muggleborn witches and wizards during the first wizard war. The list of people that she allegedly tortured or killed was substantially longer than that of most of the other death eaters.

Now she was hugging her.

‘What the hell is going on here.’ She thought trying to find a way to explain the new behaviour that Bellatrix had displayed.

“Excuse me?” she said out into the room, not wanting to speak to Bellatrix directly. Still a bit freaked out by the unusual behaviour.

“What is it, muddy?” the witch answered by whispering it in her ear.

Thing only seemed to get stranger and stranger.

“What is going on?” she asked now addressing her captor directly. Bellatrix had taken to move closer and pin her arms under hers.

“What do you mean?” Wonder could be heard in the other woman’s voice.

If Hermione had been able she would have gestured to the entirety of the body of the other witch, now she had to take a pointed shoulder shrug.

“Oh, you mean all the touchy feelings?” the witch said moving back a little so she could her in the face. “We’ll all I can say is that while ignorance is bliss, knowledge is power. In this case the knowledge,” she nodded over to the filled bookcase, the book she dropped had reappeared on the shelve, “made a few points clear. Some of which I was quite surprised by, muddy. Some things that were previously questions now are answers.”

“That’s very nice but what has this to do with this?” she said, getting a bit uncomfortable from the nearly two minutes one-sided hug.

Bellatrix looked down and seemed to realise where she was standing, “Well would you look at that. It seems that faith has brought us here together.”

“I believe that it wasn’t faith, more like me getting distracted and you walking up.” Hermione stated coldly, her outside radiated a cold indifference. On the inside Hermione was warming up to the evil Dead eater.

“Xertolifie, xertolefee” Bellatrix said finally releasing her from her grasp.

Hermione steadying herself for a moment trying not to fall, she had been leaning into the hug more than she had realised.

“So, what caused the change of heart?” she asked taking a step back. She bumped into an armchair. Looking back she saw that there was a small reading corner in the hall, a number of chairs and tables populated the area.

Bellatrix took this moment to push her lightly back into the chair while taking seat in one that stood opposite of it. Looking down she saw that her Chair was as dark as the night while, Bella’s was decorated with gold and red.

“Where would you like me to start?” the dark witch asked letting out a sigh, it sounded like she hadn’t relaxed like this for a little while.

“The beginning,” Hermione offered, trying to figure the other out.

“Well about a decade ago, during my stay in Azkaban there was a curious cellmate that occupied the cell on the other side of the hallway. He spend all the time yelling about how Mud bloods wheren’t different from purebloods, he would rant about it for hours on end. Even with the blasted Dementors that would come by every single day. He made my life miserable.” Bellatrix looked out into the distance for a moment.

“What happened to him?” Hermione asked, hoping that it would break her out of the trance.

“He died a few weeks later, the dementors buried him in the prisons cemetery.” Bellatrix told her being pulled from the poignant stare. “That is of little importance, to this story at least. No, what was important that he said was that there was no difference between mud bloods and purebloods. At the time I was still fully convinced that He was full of it. Spreading the propaganda that Dumbledore or his blasted Order of the Phoenix had cooked up, to convince the magical world that those people where as much a part of their world as they were.”

“Wait you said you used to think that muggleborn and purebloods weren’t equal.” Hermione said out loud already sketching an outline of what Bellatrix was saying.”

“I did, and if you could wait for a couple of moments I would have explained it further.” Bellatrix said putting on an annoyed voice. “anyway, in the following decade I had plenty of time to think. During my more sane moments, I went over every single witch and wizard that I had known and remembered and evaluated their skills and powers. And in the beginning it seemed that purebloods where winning by default.

But after and after many more witches and wizards evaluated the playing field was a lot more equal than I had though it to be. Obviously I was not conceding defeat just yet. On the pureblood side there still were Dumbledore and the dark lord, the most powerful wizards born in England in the last century.

Again these results had then needed to be thrown out because they were outliers. They were literally the most powerful in their field, but they also where on a different level then everyone else.” She looked back to Hermione to see if she was still following, “Of course you have heard that the only person the dark lord is scared of is Dumbledore. This is partially true, as they both are at the core the same kind of person.

Let me finish,” she said holding her had up, before Hermione could spring to the headmasters defence. “I know that It might sound strange but it is true, At the core of their beings they seek power. Dumbledore has given up on his quest to unlimited power during his early years. I suspected that it had something to do with Grindelwald. But the Dark lord is still all in on his quest, he has found a way to conquer death and has obtained extremely powerful magical powers during this time.” She finished talking in a strange mix of adoration and dislike of her master.

“So they are ruled out because they have powers out of proportion?” Hermione asked trying to understand what way Bellatrix was judging the witches and wizards.”

“That’s right.” She responded, keeping silent.

“…finish, not already…” Hermione could be hear being whispered under Bellatrix’s breath.

“What?” Hermione cleared her throat, trying to keep the death eater on track.

“Nothing, where did I leave you off?” Bellatrix said.

“You were going on that You-know-who and Dumbledore couldn’t be counted in the larger sample size of the magical population.” Hermione answered, a bit proud that even though she wasn’t in school right now she was still just as attentive.

“Right, right so after they were thrown out it became clear that from all I could gather it seemed that there was no real difference between the powers of mud bloods and purebloods.” She concluded, “That took me about three years of working out during the better moments in that prison. And when I finished the hypotheses I needed to check if it was true. So when I was broken out of prison I started planning a breaking to the department of mysteries. That we needed to break into here for the prophesies was a lucky coincidence. I didn’t even need to convince the Dark lord to let me break into here.” Bellatrix finished in monologed, Hermione was almost inclined to applaud the presented evidence?

“So why are you here?” She settled for asking.

“Well I needed to check the knowledge.” She said, like it was the most normal thing in the world.

“What do you, mean check the knowledge?” she asked eyeing the bookcase that Bellatrix had been standing next to when she had entered.

“The knowledge,” Bellatrix motioned to the bookcase, “the collected knowledge of the magical world and a projection of the future based on the average outcome of the prophesies.” She said.

Hermione looked over to the bookcase again, noticing the titles that where printed onto their spines; A short list of magical beings born after 1500’s to present, the complete art of potions discovered since inception, the power difference between the purebloods and new wizards. That had been the book that Bellatrix had been holding. She started getting up to take a closer look when a loud explosion shook the room they were in.

“It seems to me that they want us out there again.” Bellatrix said, walking past Hermione and handing her wand back.

“You want anyone to stay safe during my time out there?” Bellatrix asked when she stood in the doorway.

Hermione though for a moment, “Nevil, Let him stay safe.” She ended settling on.

\---

Coming back to the office that Bellatrix had occupied in a stolen face Hermione was still sitting across from the witch in disguise.

“Can you take that face off or is it on a timer?” She asked the older witch.

“You are no fun,” Bellatrix said pulling up her wand and then removed the charms that had changed her face and appearance.

Hermione was relieved that Bella was looking healthier. Last time that they had met up in a similar way as this, only then she had taken professors Sprout appearance. They had spend the latter part of the evening discovering the nooks and crannies of the abandoned greenhouse.

“There is my girl,” Hermione said jumping over the table and into Bellatrix’s lap. She made herself comfortable hugged the older woman. “It’s good to see you again.”

“You know pet, I think that too. I think that this time it might be for longer though.” She said cuddling the younger woman. The tone with which she spoke gave the her some hope. They had met up like this on and off again for the past few years, meeting in places that she wouldn’t expect. Mostly with Bellatrix wearing borrowed faces and her being invited to an appointment.

“What do you mean that it might be a bit longer?” she asked hoping that the answer would satisfy what she had though.

“You remember that place in France that my family owned?”

“I do,” she really hoped that the next part was what she thought.

“The French authorities see no problem with me moving there, so I can be a free woman again.” Bellatrix barely finished because Hermione had sat up straight and planted a kiss on the other woman’s lips when the news came out of them.

Deepening the kiss Bellatrix pulled away for a breath, “And I wondered if you would like to move in?” Hermione heard the offer and was already answering before Bella finished the question.

“Yes yes, a thousand times, yes. I would love to move in with you.” Hermione told her. kissing her on the lips again, hugging her tight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nice


	4. A funeral is a strange place to meet

You would think that a funeral is a sad place. And while Dumbledore’s funeral was certainly sad, Hermione found that the air that hung around them was surprisingly light. The Wizamagot had come with all their current and past living members to pay tribute. The ministry had officially send only the minister of magic, but most of the department heads and all nonsensical personnel had taken a day off to be at the funeral. There where also a myriad of foreign delegations that had shown up to pay tribute, the Austrian delegation had brought a large wreath commemorating his actions in stopping Grindelwald, preventing a European wide war to break out.

Hermione had taken a seat next to the boys when they had first arrived. Apparently he had arranged that the members of Dumbledore army where to be seated in the frontmost block of seats. They where seated behind only the members of the order of the phoenix and some of the personal friends of him that where still living.

While paying tribute to the great wizard Hermione would have found it ridiculous to get bored throughout the service. But when the third hour of came and went she must admit defeat to herself. She had tried real hard but when they had started listing accomplishments by decade she had tuned out. She had taken to look further out past the tomb that he would later be sealed in, into the forbidden forest. An hour or so ago the centaurs had walked out from under the shadows and where now flanking the border, their bows in hand.

She was looking at all of them, searching for a familiar face to stand out between them. Alas there was no one there that she might have been able to recognize. Firenze was back at the castle, shunned from the group at the moment, which left the amount of centaurs that she knew by name at a solid zero.

Scanning the border of the forest she noticed that there was a stretch that the centaurs weren’t occupying. It was a more shaded than other parts of the forest.

“When I met Albus, he was just starting out as the professor in transmutation…” She would be lying to herself, if this part of the funeral was boring her.

Her mind was again wondering around the forest border and looking at the part that was just in shadows. She could have sworn that there had been a glimmer in there.

‘That’s strange.’ She thought.

‘What’s strange?’ a voice asked her back.

She looked slightly from side to side looking if anyone was talking to her. Wondering if she had said her thoughts out loud absentmindedly. Not seeing anyone she saw Harry holding Ginny’s hand, and Ron was looking bored out of his mind. He would have taken a nap if he could have.

‘Not seeing anyone, Muddy?’ the voice said.

‘Who are you?’ she though, already having an idea whom it might be and wanting to be proven wrong.

‘Don’t recognize your superior? I’ll give you one try.’

‘Please don’t be Bellatrix, please don’t be Bellatrix.’ She repeated over and over, in a mantra.

‘I should be offended with that muddy. It is like you don’t appreciate me, for all I’ve done for you.’

‘When have you ever done anything for me. You have tried to kill me on at least two different occasions.’

‘have not.’ The voice said annoyed.

‘In the ministry you threw the killing curse past me twice.’ Hermione said.

‘I missed you on purpose silly girl. If I had been trying to kill you it would have happened already.’ The voice said smugly.

‘What about last week, then?’ she retorted.

‘I didn’t expect you at the time,’ was said a bit more timid, ‘you where supposed to be in bed. Far from the action.’

“And now we will break for ten minutes so everyone can get a bite to eat.” A loud voice penetrated her mind when the guy at the platform pointed his wand at his throat.

‘well, thanks for not killing me then.’ She though in her most sarcastic way she could make it.

‘Watch your tone there muddy. I might change my mind.’ The voice threatened her.

‘I’ll look out in the future.’ She said wanting to having the final word.

“Want to get a bit?” she asked Ron and Harry.

Harry and Ginny declined, while Ron was walking past them towards the buffet. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

They nodded and sat there in silence leaning into each-other.

Looking over her shoulder at the forest border, she saw that the centaurs had retreated into the shadows. And the part where she had seen a glint was still in shadows.

‘You getting a bite?’ she was asked.

‘I am and you should get out of my head or meet me in person.’ Hermione stated, not believing for a second that Bellatrix would show up. She might be mad but she wasn’t that insane.

‘I might do that, meet you by Myrtle?’

This shocked her, Bellatrix was insane apparently. If she though that she could meet her in the castle.

‘Sure, I’ll see you there.’ Why was she agreed to meet an insane murderer in the haunted toilets.

-

The girl really let people wait on her Bellatrix though. She had been in here for almost nine minutes and she was losing patience. If she was even a second late she was beating her ass up and down this washing room.

A creak preceded the entrance of her most annoying obsession. She had been annoyed by her since she had seen her in the ministry. She had been impressed by her spellcasting and basic duelling capabilities that she possessed. If she had been asked who the best witch there was she would have elected her, but when she had informed about the teens by her nephew and she turned out to be a mud blood.

And while she was still having trouble parsing her on her capabilities with magic. As she was a thief that was stealing her magic, but she was so talented. There was something there to be admired.

“Hello?” The mud blood yelled out into the room, she hadn’t noticed her yet.

“There you are, muddy. Left me waiting.” She said scaring her, she saw that it took a massive amount of will to not jump.

“What do you want?” Hermione said, her voice weakening the more she saw of the dark witch.

‘Come on, why does she need to be this cute.’ Her thoughts ran by her before she told it to shut up.

“I had a few questions that need answers.” She said, no nonsense.

“First, when did you steal the magic that you now possess?”

“I didn’t.” was her answer.

“Alright,” why wasn’t she trying to torture her now? “Second, are you single?” Why the fuck did you just ask that?

“What?”

“Notting.” She quickly responded turning round and strutting around the basins. Calming down from what she had just said.

“No, no. Why did you ask me if I was single.” The girl asked, curiously.

“Shut up or I’ll curcio you.” She treated. ‘Why am I threatening her, I should just be doing it.’ She thought, ‘she might be changing you into a better person.’ A voice said.

“You’re lying!” she yelled out, sitting up in her bed.

“Who’s lying?” a tired Hermione said lifting an eyelid from her position on the bed.

Bellatrix recognised the room she was in, it was her bedroom. The bedroom she was sharing with her wife. The wife that was now looking concerned and mostly awake up at her.

“nothing, just a bad dream. You go back to sleep muddy.” She said.

“Muddy.” Hermione said amused, “it has been a while since you’ve used that nickname.”

Bellatrix leaned over and pressed a kiss on the others forehead. “Go to sleep, there is nothing to worry about.” She said, scratching her forearm. Where the dark mark had been was now a permanent mark, one that hadn’t shown a hint of use since the demise of the dark lord ten years earlier. “there is nothing to worry about.” She repeated to herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> neat


	5. Preliminary agreements

“Could you tell me one more time why it is I that has to go to the meeting?” Hermione yelled out, not letting Dumbledore interrupt her, what he was proposing was madness, complete insanity. There was no way she would ever give in to what he had asked. She had given him a hard no and there was no way in hell or heaven that she would move on that point.

-

Entering through the door she noticed the magical barrier that she walked through, into the neutral chamber. As a part of the agreement both sides would send in one person, representing their own side. The order had selected her as their negotiator. She was the only one of them that was deemed to be neutral enough to listen to the propositions of the other side without outright dismissing them.

She didn’t want to go, but after first Albus, and most of the order after him she had given in. Accepting the position on a one off trail, she had told them that if this didn’t go well that someone else should do it.

The room was bland, nothing of note decorated it. Its walls as grey as can be, not showing any discolorations from the light or wear that they might have gone through. There was also and ebony table and a couple of mismatched chairs on either side. Letting out a breath that she was the first to arrive she pulled out the chair on her side of the room, placing her notepad on the table and pulled her pencil from behind her ear. Waiting for the other negotiator to enter.

The room was unremarked in all ways, only made special that there was no magic to be found inside of it. That was what made it special, not the interior but the properties that it held. She would be much more unsettled if that wasn’t the case. The other door was as dark as the night, it reminded her of the doors in the department of mysteries.

The door slammed open when the other negotiator entered and announced her presence. She looked over to where the door had slammed. Bellatrix entered the room and looked trough her, inspecting the room before focusing her full attention on the witch whom was sitting down.

“You.” She snarled, shoving the door closed.

She reached over the table and grabbed Hermione’s collar and pulling her up from behind the table. Up and out of her chair.

She wasn’t as surprised as some people might have been in that situation. Her only reaction was the cocked eyebrow that now was decorating her face.

“You.” Was all Hermione said before leaning in and stealing a kiss before the dark witch could back up. She closed her eyes wanting to make the moment last as long as she could.

Prematurely it ended, as she had predicted. Being dropped when Bella released her collar. She plopped back down on the chair and looked up at the older woman.

There was a playful darkness that was playing behind those eyes she observed. She would surely be punished for taking before asking, she wondered trailing her finger over the pencil that was still next to her notepad.

“Muddy, you’re playing with fire here.” Bella said in a sensual tone slowly moving round the table, till she was alongside the younger witch. She reached down and pressed with one hand on Hermione’s shoulder. Pushing her into the wall that was right next to the chair.

“And you know what happens when we play with fire don’t we?” Bella said pulling out a candle and a box of matches.

“Care to enlighten me?” Hermione said, pulling her sweater over her head and discarding it in the corner of the room.

-

“We should get going.” Bellatrix said, coming out of the absolute bliss they had just experienced. She reached over to hand Hermione her pants back, as she had kind of ripped them off and threw across the room. Wonderfully they weren’t ripped so she could just slip back into them.

As she started putting her attire back together, she watched the dark witch watching her with an admiration she had seen few times before, and then in lesser extents.

“See something you like?”

“What I like is getting censored.” Was the reply from Bellatrix as she propped herself up on her elbows.

“So what do we tell them?” she motioned to both of the doors.

“Oh, just tell them that we agree to release the pure- and half-blood prisoners for any death eaters your side is willing to switch. Details to be worked out later.”

“Alright, same place next time?” She asked, fixing her clothing.

“If I don’t get to you before that, sure.”

Hermione leaned down and pressed a soft kiss on Bella’s lips. “Stay safe.”

Bellatrix only rolled her eyes and cackled a little, “Sweetie the person that is gonna pose a danger to me is yet to be born.”

Smiling she threw the corset back at her, “here put some clothes on.”

“Why?” Bellatrix said like a spoiled child that was displeased it wasn’t allowed to do something anymore.

“Whatever, I’m leaving now.” She said reaching for the doorknob, “stay safe, though. Don’t let pride kill you.” Was her final plea before leaving the room.

“For you, never.” Flew passed her as she exited the room.

“Bloody hell Mione!” she heard Ron yell as she entered the orders headquarters.

“I told you not to wait up Ronald.” She said flatly, “Where is Albus?” she asked him, he could be helpful in some way at least.

“Albus?” He questioned, “oh he’s upstairs with the others in the kitchen last I saw.” he said realising who she was talking about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nice


	6. Snowglobes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there is some NSFW in here be sure your allowed to read it before you do.

Bellatrix approached the bed stalking the sleeping figure atop it like a tiger. Slowly doing laps of the room, moving closer occasionally, not wanting to disturb the figure on the bed. Seeing the chest rise and fall regularly she approached the foot of the bed.

Taking her knife from its holster on her tight she held it high before pouncing on the girl, shocking her awake and driving her knife hilt deep in her chest. The girl just looked at her while the glitter started to pool between her breasts. Pulling out the knife it was covered in glitter, Bellatrix noted.

“Yay,” was the only response the girl would have heard before slipping beyond this plane of existence.

-

“Pet, are you sure your fine?” Bellatrix asked Hermione for the third time that day, she had thought that it would be easier to cast a silencing spell on her. at least then their make out sessions wouldn’t get interrupted all the time.

“Bellatrix for the last time, I’m fine,” she said, taking the opportunity to get the shirt of that Bellatrix had just pulled down when they had ended up on the bed. Both of them had enjoyed every moment they had spent together that day, both of them had apparated into the united states to be out of reach of either the order or the death eaters.

The morning had started in Boston where Hermione had wanted to see the magical library of Boston, a modern day equivalent of the muggle library of Alexandria.

Bellatrix however had different thoughts, though. She had taken Hermione by the hand and pulled her to the far rooms of the building. Opening a room where there where some writing desks locked away she looked round before she understood her girlfriends intention.

Bellatrix could say that leaving that room she had eaten a lot. Hermione had needed a bit longer to recover, she wasn’t exactly used to receive a godly blessing about three times in a morning. She had laid back on the desk for a bit before she fixed her clothing cleaning the furniture that they had defiled.

There was shame on her face when she walked back outside building, the librarian had given her a curious look. One that she couldn’t make out was one of curiosity or one of knowledge. She was hoping that it wasn’t the latter.

It had been strange though, right in the middle of going down on her Bellatrix had asked her if she was alright. As she had been out of it for a bit she didn’t answer the question immediately. When the influx of pleasure had stopped and the fog in her mind had cleared up she looked down to see her sitting there, waiting for an answer. She had told her there that she was fine and commanded her Bella to get back to work, which she had been complicit in.

At the midway point of the day Bellatrix had taken her to a dodgy looking restaurant, she had taken it one look and stiffened up. Bellatrix had picked up on it and had taken her hand, comforting it and had assured that it was a legitimate business. It was family-owned by the black family tree branch that had settled there in the mid eighteen hundreds.

Entering the place she needed to give credit where credit was do, it looked impeccable form the inside. There were a bunch of boots facing away from one another. They were greeted by someone who seemed to know of them, or at least Bellatrix. But only in the She-Is-A-Black kinda way.

After being led to their boot she noticed that all of them seemed empty despite the influx of people that where coming in and out of the building.

“A concealment charm.” Bellatrix allured to when she pulled her in her lap. Having her tumble backwards onto the other seats.

“So you’re saying that we can look out but they can’t look in?” Hermione asked, a plan was forming in her head.

“not a thing, but sound is still audible, muffled a lot though but a loud yell would pass through with not a lot of trouble.” Bellatrix informed her when they came with the menu’s.

As Bellatrix accepted them she handed the girl a banknote unlike any she had seen before and told the girl that they would let her know when they were ready to order. As she left Bellatrix was already pulling Hermione into her lap again. securing her so she wouldn’t fall down.

“tell me when to stop.” Was all that Bellatrix whispered before moving her hands to cup Hermione’s breasts. Oven her clothing she felt the touch exiting her more than she had though would be possible.

It wasn’t long before she was heaving form frustration when Bellatrix reminded her that she shouldn’t be so loud.

Trying to turn she noticed that she was stuck there, Bellatrix must have put a binding spell on her. Bellatrix’s hands had started to slowly explored the rest of Hermione’s clothes, moving slowly over them. Occasionally traveling below them, trailing her fingers over the skin that was hidden beneath those layers.

Putting her head on her shoulder Bellatrix asked “can I?” her hands now resting on just below her belly button. When she nodded they started their slow decent. Hermione thought that she would probably go insane if the dark witch didn’t move a bit quicker. With all her might she had started to move against her bounds to get some kind of friction out of the fingers that where now laying on her tights, having slipped her skirt down her legs.

They were slowly massaging them, trailing a finger one at a time closer and closer to her centre. There was a heat building up down there, but every time she came close the finger seemed to lose contact with her skin.

Having lost track of time after a while of Bellatrix edging her closer and closer to release, occasionally whispering to be a good girl and to stay quiet. She was sure that her underwear was soaked. Not only had they sat there for an unreasonable amount of time she was surly losing her mind.

Her only focus was the woman behind her. her only experience of the world had been focused on her tights and surrounding her sex.

When Bellatrix finally started exploring the more wet patches of the fabric she had almost let out a yell from release, not having noticed the incredible high that she had been led onto. Clenching her mouth shut she had fallen limp onto the table in front of her. having been released from the bounds and Bellatrix’s embrace.

She laid there for a good minute cooling down onto the cold table top when for the second time that day Bellatrix asked her if she was okay.

She must have laid there on that table top for about five minutes before she could articulate an answer.

“Bella… that, that was the single… oh… that was just soo… so good.” She eventually managed to say sitting upright again, leaning onto Bellatrix for support. She had been drained by the experience, noting that it was a bit of a miracle that they were in a diner. She had completely forgotten that they were in there.

Coming to that realisation she fixed her clothes for the second time that day. When she was finished freshening up, Bellatrix called the girl over and ordered a full English breakfast. Hermione needed the sustenance that it provided.

Eventuality they had ended up in new York city, in one of the apartments the Blacks owned over here. Coming in the door she had quickly closed it and pulled of her upper layers while Bellatrix had transformed a couple of pieces of furniture in a big bed.

That’s how they had ended up in the positive where she had been the most pleasure in her life but again she had been asked if she was okay.

“Why are you asking that?” she asked Bellatrix, sitting up, she pulled Bellatrix up so her arms where now around her thighs.

“Well we’ve been having a good fucking time but every time we are at the apex or past it you ask if I am fine or alright. What is up with that?”

“Well…” Bellatrix, started. Looking away for a second, “it’s just you don’t turn transparent.”

Silence fell over the room, Hermione starting at Bellatrix’s hair crown.

“what.”

“You don’t turn transparent like the other girls I’ve slept whit.”

“…”

“It might be a glitter blood thing.” She whispered into her abdomen.

wait did she just say Glitter blood.

“did you just say Glitter blood.”

“Well, that is what it is. Our pure glitter bloodlines all have it going through our veins.” When she said that she rubbed over her veins. While Hermione was looking at them, they turned transparent and she could see the glitter inside of them.

“wait, was that why you were asking me if I was alright?”

Bellatrix still refusing to answer had leaned into her abdomen. She was now kinda sitting there resting. “the girls I slept with and ‘pleasured’ would always turn transparent when their magic would flow through them.”

“And when I didn’t you thought you weren’t doing a great job?” she asked.

“yeah,” she said.

“want me to try?” she asked of her.

When she said that Bellatrix looked up at her again, a sly grin coming on her face.

“please.” Was all she had to say before switching their positions.

-

A little while later she and Bellatrix where lying on her back. She was staring at Balladries boobs that had turned translucent.

“They’re like Snow globes.”

Looking down at the girl she nodded, “yeah they kinda do.”


	7. We don’t work too hard

A musical was always a mess of preparations and planning, many would call the chaos too much to deal with but she wasn’t many. She had done this before, often alone, sometimes partially helped by a handful of others. She enjoyed the long meetings, the scheduling of peoples lives over the course of four months. While she didn’t care for power, she enjoyed it when she could wield it in her hand. A type stroke deciding who goes where, when they sleep and even when and what they ate.

Hermione had been effectively running the administrative side of the small theatre her town had, first starting as a technician, growing trough management eventuality running the department after a short two years. Whit her in charge they had gone from surviving to thriving, putting on almost three shows a year. There had been a few cool thins that she had been able to do; she had convinced the theatre to do an unabridged version of Hamlet. While it had taken a time before they could pull it off, they did so wonderfully. All six hours.

Reminiscing on her biggest accomplishment she looked at the task in front of het, the board had decided that at the next production would honour the beginning of the bicentennial of the end of the French revolution. They where gonna do Les Mis, despite that it had little to do with the actual revolution.

Planning it she had looked over the character list that was included in the large binder that would be the foundation of the show. Now it only included the script and a characters list.

“So to start this off, I’ll put this on the board to get the preference of the actors,” she said out loud to her recorder, she had been recording her own notes for the longest time now. It was an easy way to get people to not flipflop on aural agreements they had made, and for herself it was good to have a record of her plans and decisions.

Taking out the list out of the binder, she moved to the copier and made three of them. For a first, second and third preference.

“There would probably be little discussion about the leads, I am betting that Lucius and Sirius will fight it out for Jean Valjean and Javert.” There would be little surprise if not one of them would want to have the top billing in the show. He Malfoys and Blacks where fiercely competitive, during the production of Romeo and Juliet the cast had been spilt along those family lines. The Blacks had laid a clam on Capulet and the Malfoys had taken Montague, it had been the first time that she had experienced the intense rivalry that was between the two families, on and off the stage.

One member of the black family in particular had been more into her role than was she had been used too. She’d played the matriarch of the house and had turned the rivalry she had with the Malfoys into a hatred towards the Capulets. Hermione had been honestly surprised that the whole run of the play there had been no incidents that would have send people to the hospital.

Walking out of her office she noticed the silence that had hung over the building since last week, they had finished a run of Wicked and had send everyone home for a much deserved break. Looking at the cork board that hung out on the outside wall of her office in the hallway. It had faded over time being covered with paper some parts had faired better than others. Now it was empty, having been cleaned off a couple of days ago, not quite back to virgin status but close. Taking one of the thumbtack’s that adored the board she pinned the three character lists up, each centred on a third of the board.

“Here we go again,” she said walking back into the office to look up what décor they would need and whom she would contact the build it this time

-

There was yelling outside of her door Hermione noticed pulling her headphones from her ears, “…would you want that role, That is not even something you would be interested in.”

Approaching the door she looked through the small window that was build into it and saw who was yelling out there.

“Andomeda I don’t care who you pick but Madame Thénardier is mine, the dark haired woman shrieked.” From what Hermione could see they had been going at it for a while. Knowing full well that intruding between them would probably not solve a lot, Bellatrix had always been somewhat courteous towards her. Starting off in the theatre she couldn’t win her respect or attention for a second, stating that she was of noble blood and talking to peasants was below her. But when they had pulled off Peter pan with all her planning and scheduling. She had mellowed out a bit, even calling her over from time to time when the cast got some food from the stage door.

“Bella, Andy.” She started sticking her head out of the door, “Could you both move this to somewhere else so other people can work?” she asked them both. Surprising not only Bellatrix but herself too, Andromeda sighed and turned walking away from the board.

“Do whatever you want Bella, I don’t know why you want her, but you do you.” Was all that she yelled over her shoulder before she descended the staircase on the far side of the hallway.

Bellatrix supped buy her sisters reaction looked confused before she grinned putting her name down for Madame Thénardier on all three of the papers.

“Bella, you know that you need to put a different first second and third choice down right,” she asked the older woman, who was currently ignoring her and drawing her name in fancy calligraphy on the pages, claiming the role as her own. People where smart enough to recognise her claim and left it alone most of the time. There had only been one incident where someone else tried to claim a spot she had taken. Hermione shuddered thinking about that day.

“Darling, would you please finalise this selection so I can get started on the lines?” she asked fluttering her lashes at her.

Hermione would be lying if this didn’t do something for her, but being around so many actors and actresses she had learned to hide the oncoming blush. She picked up a clipboard that was lying on the shelf next to the door before walking out to not Bellatrix’s choice.

She looked over the page searching for Bellatrix’s name and jolted Madame Thénardier down next to it. As she wasn’t completely familiar with the play she was putting on she was curious about her choice.

“Bella,” she started making eye contact with her, “isn’t Thénardier supposed to be ugly?” she asked.

“What is it to you?” Bellatrix asked moving into her personal space, making her a bit uncomfortable. While she had spend the last couple of years in the company of these performers, the lack of personal space these people developed was still beyond her.

Obviously losing the fight to push her blush back into her cheek her eyes darted round Bellatrix, hoping that she could escape before this would last any longer. She couldn’t hear a lot over the thumping of her heart in her ears, only catching the end of what Bellatrix was saying to her.

“…the costumes?” She stared Hermione in the eyes expecting an answer.

Blanking for a few seconds, Hermione panicked and said, “sure, that would be great.” Before jumping back, almost like a cat, running into her office slamming the door. Falling to the floor back to the door breathing quickly, feeling hyperventilation come on she started counting the seconds it took between each breath. Willing herself to last a little longer every time. she eventually calmed down and put her head to the door with a soft thud.

What had she agreed to something she realised, running over the thoughts of what had happened the moments before. She had said yes, but to what she wondered. Staring at the whiteboard that adored the backwall of her office she stared at the planning that she had laid out. What if whatever Bellatrix had planned fell on one of those moments, what would happen then?

‘Would she say no,’ she wondered, calming down a bit. But then panicked, ‘what if she said yes? what then?”

Seeing that this wasn’t helping anyone she started to think of a plan, to know what Bellatrix had asked her without asking her per se.

She would have to see about that plan later, now her first performer was locked in she could start calling the costume department to tell them what they could start to make.

-

Between balancing a secret plan to find out what Bellatrix had asked her and organising a theatre show she had been busy. Her time spend at home had diminished dramatically. She only really slept in her bed the night from Sunday to Saturday, when she was forced out of her office by her boss. While she put up a small fight every time, she was grateful that the older custodian send her out every weekend, claiming that cleaning her office would be impossible with her on the sofa.

The show was coming alive, the first read through on stage had been completed at the beginning of the week and the second fitting of the costumes was coming up. As for her plan things had grinded to a halt. Via Narcissa and Andromeda she had heard that Bellatrix had something planned right before the grand premiere, they hadn’t been able to tell her what though.

And as that was all the information that she got she had laid her plans to rest for the moment. Certain that Bellatrix wouldn’t bother her during the carefully planned events and agenda point, she rescheduled everything that could be moved from the premiere and had put the rest together.

Now thought she was late for a rundown of the show for the technical personnel, luckily Neville was in charge there and he would have gotten started already, putting down a few notes that she would have to read over. Picking the binder up again she took note of the weight it had gained over the coarse of the preparations. There were fabric parts in there as reference to the different costumes. The materials the stage was build out of was represented in the back in a rigid board of wood and foam that looked like bricks.

Closing her office door she wondered not for the first, and certainly not the last time what Bellatrix might be planning. But first she needed to make sure that Tech could run the show without trouble.

-

The repetitions had gone by rather quickly, cast and crew had gotten into a groove along the third week and at the end of the fourth week there was the general repetition. And for the first time since she had been employed by the theatre had she seen a perfect one. A complete play done for an audience of one, her.

She had sat there and enjoyed the musical, all its ups and downs. Occasionally looking down in the binder she spot-checked parts of the scenes for faults or places where people where having trouble. She had been sitting there when she decided that an evaluation of Bellatrix was needed, she was in the background of the current scene waiting for her moment to break into song.

While she was watching her she noticed a few strange things, While technically she was excelling at the play but she seemed a bit nervous, looking out into the audience. Even where there was none there yet, she could have sworn that Bellatrix was staring at her for most of the play now.

-

‘Tonight had been the premier of Les Misérables at their theatre,’ she though when she pulled her black dress down her legs fixing the wrinkles that had creeped up there when she had put it on. She looked in the mirror and made sure that she looked presentable.

Leaving her door she took the theatre binder with her to give to the board of directors as a sign that the show had finally started. She would obviously get it back to put in the archive, right after the picture was taken.

After the picture Bellatrix had asked het to meet under the stage in one of the old rehearsals halls. So she was going there right after. Walking in the dark hallway she saw that there was a glow coming from the door.

“Bella are you in here?” she asked.

“I’m here,” Bellatrix’s voice called out from the back of the room.

Walking in she room she saw the source of all the light. There in between what must have been a dozen candles. Stood Bellatrix Black, holding a candle in her hands. She looked like someone had taken the dictionary definition of a theatre drama kid.

She was dressed in all black, a corset that looked too good to be actually real, and she was holding a candle. More dramatic couldn’t be imagined.

“Hermione…” She started.

“let me stop you there before you hurt yourself.” She interjected, reaching over reach to take candle, and blowing it out. “it was dripping wax on the front.” She explained.

“…oh thanks…”

“What where you gonna say when I walked int?” she asked.

“Oh… well I was gonna ask you to be my girlfriend or something…” she mumbled.

“You want me to be your girlfriend?” Hermione asked.

“Yes.” Was all that Bellatrix could say.

“alright then, well talk about this later,” Hermione said looking on her watch to check the time. she running out so she keep this moving.

“we will?” Bellatrix asked, “but I had so many arguments ready.”

“That’s lovely of you but right now, I don’t have to time. So yes to the Girlfriend question, do it later to the arguments. And now you need to move or the show is gonna start on the wrong foot.

When Bellatrix moved out of the door she realised it, ‘she had a girlfriend now. Her girlfriend was the very cute and amazing Bella.’ A smile was on her face for the rest of the day not in part to the wonderfully played madam Thénardier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> neat


	8. Anybody

Dating Bellatrix had been a fulltime job she had noticed, you couldn’t leave her in a room filled with muggle technology without having to explain the smallest thing to her. While it had been a bit annoying when they had moved into their house in the outskirts of bath.

She had spent the majority of the week explaining the muggle utilities to her. She had been fascinated by the television: or as she called it, a static portrait, because she couldn’t talk to the people on the screen.

They had spend many evening since that week watching a myriad of comedy movies, Bellatrix insisted that she didn’t need to see anymore horrors in her life. Their couch had been work it’s money Hermione had been able to say even before the month was over. But all in all they had both acclimated to their new living situations.

But nothing would have prepared her for what she needed to deal with that day. They had gotten up that morning, first she making the breakfast preparations, and about forty minutes later there would be a shimmer of a person joining her that would eventually become Bellatrix over the course of her meal.

After this she would leave for work and Bellatrix would manage the affairs the Black family had left behind. She was the only living surviving member of the family in name and lineage. So she had been tasked to deal with all the paper work.

Around lunch on a normal day there would be a moment where she would call Bella on her phone, which was one of the few technologies that Bella had really taken to apricate. Apparently being able to talk to one another without having to use a fire was so much better than the magical way to do it. And she had become a fan of sudokus and crossword puzzle that she was making on the phone.

Here she had to say on a normal day, this day was anything but normal. Having left the house for only twenty-five minutes she felt her phone vibrating. For a moment she was confused, this phone number was not connected to any muggle networks so telemarketers couldn’t actually reach her.

Picking up the phone she was surprised to see that Bellatrix was calling her. she looked confused for a second before pulling to the side in the ministry’s income hall.

“Hello, Hermione here.” She said finding a place where she had some privacy.

“Hey, Hermione. Bella here. I’m calling you to ask for some advice.” Bellatrix half yelled trough the phone, she could hear some wind coming trough as well as the sounds of a road.

-

“Bella?” Hermione asked her fiancé.

“Yes.”

“Is that a dead body?” she asked again pointing out the body that was leaning against the backwall of their home.

“Seems so.” Bellatrix said matter of fact.

“You have any idea how it got there?” she asked.

“Not really, I just kinda walked outside and there he was.” She gestured with her hands. “just sitting there, I even called out to him that he should bugger off.” She said proudly.

Hermione sighed a bit before looking the guy over, his clothes looked dishevelled and like it had been used more than ones to sleep outside. He was probably a homeless guy that had found his end at their back wall.

“That’s fine then. Well call the muggles cops and then they will clean it up. Nothing that we need to be bothered with.” She said, pulling out her wand, wanting to make sure that he didn’t die at the hand of magic.

Finding no trace on him she nudged her fiancé back into their house and called the cops to take a look at it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> neat


	9. Haunted house

How she had been convinced to help in the house of horrors Hermione wasn’t sure. While it was true that she was helping organise this event, it had been her intention to stay in the administrative part of the whole thing. Never really wanting to help out in acting in the haunted houses.

Now she was standing in one of the changing rooms of the nearby school, putting on a ghost outfit that might have been from the early part of the last century. But nevertheless she had put it on and braved the outside world before entering the haunted house the Weasleys had set up it was a two story attraction that never had its place in the middle of the event.

Looking at it now it was almost impossible to see the simple building blocks they had made the building out of. In essence it were just a bunch of old shipping containers that had reached the end of their seafaring life but could still be used for things like this. They had dressed up the outside with wood and even made some windows to put on there too. You couldn’t actually use them, they had black plastic behind them and Fred had not been able to cut the holes in the steel containers to make them functional.

“Morning Hermione,” George said looking up when he heard someone enter the backstage area of the place.

“Morning,” her reply was like she was at the moment. Short and sweet, even though it might have been a bit harsh to him, it was still early in the day and planning had held her up quite late.

She stood there for a moment watching George press buttons and wait for Fred to tell him the effects where working through a walkie-talkie. Everything seemed to be going well till one of the lights appeared to be broken. Fred called in that he would go and get some different lights, and to let the testing halt for a second.

George satisfied that the intensive rundown had brought at least one problem to light sat back in his chair, hands behind his head and then stretching them out. Satisfied with the pop he created, he looked over to her again.

“So, this your first time in a haunted house?” he asked, but she could see a twinkle of mischief in his eyes.

“No, not the first time. I went to one not long ago, with Ginny and Luna.” She answered hoping that whatever evil plan he was concocting was now obsolete. And hearing from the tone in his voice she had accomplished exactly that.

“Pity, you would have been a perfect subject to test the house whit a blanc slate. Doesn’t matter,” he changed the tone to more exited, “we’re not here to scare the employees, we’re here to scare the guests.” He declared standing up and moving over to the table that was standing next to the door that gave access to this space.

He pointed out the map that she had been making herself comfortable with for the last couple of days, proud to say she had memorised the entire thing.

“so this is the blueprint for the horror that this place holds,” he said pointing at the coloured areas that were visible among the different sections, “as you know the different spheres of influence of horror overlap a little it. So while you are in there feel free to roam a bit, stretch your legs before they cramp up from standing in place for the next couple of hours.”

It was like he had read her thoughts, it had indeed been her intention to find a place to stand in and just wait it out there. she even thought she had found the perfect space to do it in, in the ghost section there was an emergency exit that needed to have a clear path to the inside of the haunted house, so what had happened was that there was an out cove with not a lot of the special effects. The only thing that was there was a light that flickered on and off every few seconds.

Her plan had been to arrive there tell the twins it was all working okay and then to disable the light so she could spend the time in there thinking about how she had been pushed into this position.

“So, you’ll be in the ghost sections…” Fred went on to explain what she was supposed to do while acting in the house. Her task was apparently to scare the children away from her spot so they wouldn’t get lost in the backstage the out cove also connected to.

“…it should be a priority, over all else that not a single person gets lost behind the scenes. They don’t look distinct enough to be immediately recognised as the backstage. It’s dark and Smokey back there which is exactly what the main road through the house is like, except the cables that lay on the floor there are real ones. Can’t have a kid or even an adult accidently pulling one out when they are walking there, got it?” he asked her at the end.

So she had been tasked to shepherd the people whom had lost their way back to the righteous path in the haunted house. She thought smiling as she visualised herself as a dead shepherd, kinda annoying people coming past to move along.

“yeah, I got it,” she answered.

-

It had been not that long before she had her routine down. Most of the time she would spend in the out cove and just sit in a chair that she had found along one of the walls that made up this place. It wasn’t exactly the most comfortable one in the world, but it didn’t wiggle when she sat on it which was a big plus in this environment.

They had opened the house to the public and they had been streaming in in droves, first ten, then twenty, then fifteen. While the attraction wasn’t that large in scale it did never really fill up, there could be five people right next to one another but they would never have noticed it. She’d have to commend the twins for that at least.

The screams of fear had become a background noise to her, nothing more than some high pinched yells that had hurt her ears till George had popped in with some earbuds for her. After that moment she had just spend the time acting as a ghost sitting in a chair. She knew that that was a copout of a role but she didn’t volunteer herself for this position so she was gonna do the minimal effort. Anyway she was more there to protect the backstage and to keep the emergency exit free from people.

In the distance she could hear a new group of people approach, she held herself still, knowing that if she would move they would notice her.

she had been right they moved right past her, looking out she wondered who they were. What might have brought them to the festival, a million different questions ran trough her mind when she noticed someone staring at her. It was dark in the hallway so she couldn’t see the face well enough, just the two reflective points on the face where visible.

The person, a woman she noticed, was frozen in place. The only reason that she noticed her was that she was shivering. Which was curious, the house had decent heating and the twins despised making people feel miserable if they had to spend several hours in there so they made sure heating was there for all the actors.

The girl was just standing there, arms wrapped around herself shivering to no end. It was a curious sight Hermione had to admit. It took only a moment longer before she made her decision.

She pulled the ghost costume over her head and called out to her.

“Hey, are you alright?”

“…” there was no answer to be heard, she pondered for a moment. Did she not hear her? There was music playing but that shouldn’t have made the difference.

A moment passed and then another. Both of them were still in their same spaces. ‘screw it,’ she thought getting up from her chair and walking over to the woman.

Approaching she recognised the face, a face she would be able to pick out of a thousand. A face that belonged to the fearless leader of the black sisters, a person so strong and courageous that it was a shock to her to see Bellatrix Black standing here. Seemingly shivering from fear. It didn’t fit the picture of her she had. It was not even in the same ballpark.

“Bella?” she asked moving closer, now in arms reach.

Bellatrix looked up, but she would have sworn it was someone else. There was fear on the her face. A face that she had admired from afar and more recently from a bit closer, it had always displayed joy, sadness, excitement. Never in all her years had she seen fear adorn the face.

Suddenly she realised what the weird sound was that she heard not but a few moments earlier. Bellatrix was crying, she had frozen from fear and was crying.

It took everything in her to not reach out herself and hug the poor girl, wanting to tell her everything was going to be alright. But she didn’t, not wanting to scare her with the sudden contact.

But it wasn’t Bellatrix that had been surprised by sudden contact. It was her who was unprepared for it. In the few moments she had stood there after approaching Bellatrix had leapt and anchored herself to Hermione. Holding on for dear life it seemed.

“Hermione, is that you?” a soft voice asked her. It was so faint and fear struck that she let out a gasp, this wasn’t the Bella she knew. The Bella she knew was so completely the opposite of this person right now.

“Yes it is me.” She answered hugging her back and then started to move her along. Into the out cove, she pushed her down on the chair. Which was a more difficult task than she had anticipated. Bellatrix had found her anchor in this awful place and was not letting go.

“Bella, could you let me go for just a second,” she asked. She could feel her head shaking under her chin.

“Could you hold my hand then?” she offered wanting to reach for some stuff and was unable till Bellatrix released her form her current predicament. She could feel the girl slowly release her, her hand trailing her arm till it reached the hand that was connected to it. After she had found it their finger intertwined and she released her form the almost painful hug she had held her in.

Hermione now free to reach for stuff started going through her bag till she found what she needed, she had packed it as a treat for surviving the night. But at the moment it seemed that Bellatrix needed it more than she would.

“Here, eat up.” She said, handing her a piece of dark chocolate. “It might not make all your fears go away but it does help to calm people down.” She explained, wanting her to know that she would calm down a bit more.

Taking the piece of chocolate she pulled her closer again. still not saying anything more she stood up form the chair and pushed her more or less in it, before taking a seat on her lap.

Hermione had let the entire interaction play out with little protest, why would she want too? A pretty lady was sitting on her lap eating her chocolate, in her book this was a big plus. If the circumstances had been different she’d even wager for a surprising success story.

They sat there in silence for a few minutes, Bellatrix nibbling away at the chocolate and her thinking of ways that she might be able to help the her.

-

It was dark.

There was not a person around she noticed.

‘Where had they gone?’

‘They were right there a moment before.’

‘What had happened?’

“hey, are you alright?” a voice called out. She couldn’t see from where it just was for a moment and the next it was gone.

‘The floor,’ she thought, ‘let’s focus on the floor. That’s permanent, unlike other things.’

Too caught up in the moment she didn’t notice someone approaching.

The person called out, “Bella?”

She looked up, ‘this person knew her name, how did they do that?’ She wondered.

She saw her then, as an angel descending from heaven to safe her, sending the softest of souls to reach out and save her from damnation.

“Hermione is that you?” she whispered as she had leapt to hold on to the girl. Not wanting her to go.

Like all the others had done before her.

“Yes it is me.” The girl answered, starting to pull her along.

Being put in a chair Bella held onto her, not wanting to see her be gone too. She shook her head when Hermione asked her to let go.

She did take her hand when it became more clear to her that she was trying to reach something, which would be difficult if your being grappled.

Hermione kneeled down next to her and reached for something in her bag.

She couldn’t see what it was yet but she also didn’t care that much, she was still having some kind of panic attack but it was better now, now she had a person that could ground her.

“Here eat up,” Hermione said placing a piece of chocolate in her hand. A waterfall of words left her mouth after that but she didn’t care about what she might be saying her voice was good enough.

As Hermione stood up it seemed that she wasn’t sure what to do, her hand still very much in the possession of herself.

She did what seemed to be the most logical response, standing up from the chair she kind of pushed/guided her to sit down before she took a seat on Hermione’s lap.

It was comfortable there, she leaned into the girl. Eating her chocolate. No matter how this day had started, what awful things might have happened. She was here now and that was important.

She snuggled into the other girl and tried to forget what was happening in the outside world. That place was evil and wanted to hurt her like it had many times before, no the place she was now. In her small world was just fine.

“What happened?” Hermione asked her softly.

She murmured over the question, what had happened. One moment she was walking through the haunted house with Malfoy and a couple of fiends until they suddenly disappeared.

Her vision had shrunk to the size of a pinprick. Darkness had rushed in and had left no space to actually see something.

“I don’t know.” she answered honestly.

She truly didn’t know what had happened. There was a whole part of her memories that she couldn’t recall. It just kinda went from Malfoy and company to Hermione standing there like an angel.

“Okay,” Hermione let out, starting to rub her back, trying to get the tension that was build up in there to relieve itself a bit. She wasn’t doing a perfect job but it did help.

They sat there for a bit longer till there was a new group that made a ruckus around the corner. Looking up she turned to face Hermione, seeing if she had heard them. Clearly the girl had tough of this eventuality as she pulled on one of the ropes that lined the walkway they where sitting in. A curtain closed before them and they where now in the dark, illuminated only by the green exit sign behind them and a couple of red power brick buttons that where stewed away to the side.

-

She didn’t stay long after that. Pulling Bellatrix to her feet again she messaged Fred that someone else needed to cover her spot, she was gonna leave a bit early to make sure that Bellatrix was fine. As he had given her the thumbs up, telling her that the shift chance was almost there anyway it would be alright.

Not bothering with completing the whole routes she simply put her bag on and pushed trough the emergency exit. Fresh air filled her lungs and both of them let out a sigh of relief. She highly doubted that she would ever enter that building willingly again.

Unsure what to do, she stood there holding Bellatrix’s hand. Swaying slightly in the wind that had set on during the hours she spend inside.

“You want to do something?” she asked Bellatrix who seemed to be surprised by the question.

“uhm…” Bellatrix answered, “I could go for a bite to eat?” she offered.

“let’s do that, I’ve been starving.” Hermione confessed as she took off lightly dragging Bellatrix along till she caught up. Walking side by side they were relaxed, leaving Bella’s moment in the haunted house behind and moving on to get some food.

The festival was going great she noted, there were a bunch of people walking around and moving from stand to stand. The corner that was reserved for “skill” games was filled up as usual. People who – while knowing better – would still willingly spend all their money on a price that was in all realty worth a fraction of that.

Reaching ‘Molly’s most magnificent diner’ Bellatrix chose one of the booths to the back of the place, seemingly most conformable having a wall behind her. Hemione was also pulled in the booth, next to her. their hands still entangled since the event earlier that evening.

Now though it was less out of fear that Hermione wasn’t real but because she was. And that meant so much more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> neat


	10. getting pumpkins

Why where the in this blasted machine again? Bellatrix pondered as she watched out of her window at the countryside rolling under and past them. While she had to admit that traveling at this speed without having the air being blown in her face was nice, she still didn’t see the point of it. They most defiantly could have floo’d there she thought, or just apparated there. While uttering all these options Hermione had pushed her lightly into the car and locked her in her seat.

They had continued the argument all the way to the end of their driveway, when it became clear to Bellatrix that she wouldn’t be winning this time. She’d have to make that clear to her later’, she thought, ‘a punishment was surly in order.’

“Are we there yet?” she asked for the sixth time. It had been the appropriate amount of time she felt to ask it again. Hearing Hermione sigh, she revaluated that decision.

“Bella, I told you before that when we get close I’ll let you know.” Hermione said, turning the radio up a bit more.

It was playing some parts of a song festival, sounding like there were thousands of voices singing at the same time. Both Bella and she fell silent listening to the radio, driving down the road for some time more.


	11. Scaring the childen

“Bellatrix what have I told you time and time again?” Hermione yelled walking into their sitting room. Bellatrix had made herself comfortable with a plastic pumpkin sitting in her lap. Slowly pulling out the candy that was inside of it.

“hmmm.” Was her only reaction pulling out a yellow wrapped candy.

“When they knock on the door you’re supposed to listen to them ask the question and then you give them candy. It’s not that difficult.” She said throwing her hands in the air.

“Sweetie,” Bellatrix said in a low tone, “they asked ‘Trick or Treat’ and that is a question to me. So I don’t know why you are so upset about me tricking them.” She reasoned.

“Bella, throwing up an illusion that your face melts off isn’t a trick you should preform around children.” Hermione said frustrated plopping herself down next to her.

“Hi.” Bella said.

“hi.”

“Care for some free candy?” she asked.”

“You’re terrible,” Hermione told Bellatrix while taking a piece.


	12. Halloween movie night

You’d think that people who have gone to prison, spend more than a decade there, then broke out and caused mayhem for a couple more years, would not get scared watching movies. But everyone could be surprised apparently, not in the least Bellatrix who had had never trouble taking in horror content from different mediums. She had read horror books, gone to plays that depicted the worst kind of human behaviour and laughed about what was happening on stage or on paper.

That watching a movie - which was essentially a play – had the impact it had left her in disarray. During the Shining a favourite from Hermione she had become more and more cramped up the longer she was watching it. The tension that kept building in her body and when the woman turned into the old one she had leapt from her place on the sofa next to Hermione and hid behind the sofa.

“Bella?” Hermione asked, looking over the back of the sofa concerned.

Bellatrix was sitting there holding her knees. Shaking visibly.

“Bella are you alright?” she said, jumping over the back of the couch. Crouching down next to her.

“Let’s not watch those again,” she let out as a whisper.

“The movies?” Hermione asked holding her wife close.

“Not all of them just those.” Bella clarified.

“the horror ones?”

Bellatrix just nodded.

‘Alright no more horror movies,’ Hermione thought, ‘Halloween movie night would have to change. Probably for the better though.’


	13. Letters of last resort

“What’s this?” Simon asked as he picked up a rather pristine looking letter from under the rubble.

Off in the distance, there was the sound of more stones collapsing. That had been going on for a while now. The castle had been sucked dry of magic and its wards were starting to break.

Pausing for a second, Neil looked back before approaching him.   
“What you find?”

“It seems like it’s a kind of letter?” Simon replied as he started reading the piece of parchment.

* * *

To Bella,

I give you this letter, not for the fear that it will be used but to make sure the people who made the impossible happen will pay for their actions.

When you came back to me, you were but a shadow of the witch I left behind on the evening off Hallow’s eve. But in the past couple of months, you have made great strides toward your old self. You, as one of few, know that July of 1996 wasn't my best month.  A part of me was ripped away from me, ripped more permanently than I had done myself years ago.

Knowing that this letter and its contents will outlive you for many more years than you will live I can tell you here that my power is absolute. I have conquered death, and have the absolute will and intent of ruling the whole of the wizarding and by extension the world. These plans will be carried out over the next couple of centuries so you will be long dead before any of this comes to pass.

What I’m saying is that I’m bound to the mortal realm by the means of Horcruxes. I assume that a member of the most ancient and noble house of Black-Lestrange is familiar with the concept. In short, it takes a part of your soul and anchors it to the world.

They are supposed to be the permanent objects that will stand the test of time as I will. Or would if you are reading this. There have been at least two destroyed since I took a last inventory of them.

  1. My diary  
This Horcrux was being kept in possession of the House of Malfoy, Lucius got rid of it in a moment of weakness for which I personally punished him, and his bloodline.  
 
  2. The Gaunt Signet ring  
This Horcrux was being kept in the extinct seat of the house of Gaunt. I suspect that this one was the one destroyed in July of 1996.



The others are still in place as I left them originally.

Back to the intent of this letter, I didn’t see it possible for anyone to gain access to any of my Horcruxes. But there is now a possibility that the Order of the phoenix has gotten air of them and are actively destroying them. 

So I leave you this letter as a means of last resort. See it as my last will.

I ask of you    
Bellatrix Druella Black-Lestrange,    
First of your name,   
Most noble commander to Lord Voldemort,   
Executor of his commands.

To lay waste to the world that managed to fell me.   
Make sure that anyone that is connected to the organisation that was involved with that is death or worse.   


I wish that you flatten the world by any means necessary, Destroy, Kill, Torture. I don’t care what magic you might reach out for, and neither do I care.

Destroy them all.

* * *

 

Finishing the letter, Simon looked over to Neil. “So…” he started.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Neil said as another part of the castle started to crumble. “She kept her word.”


	14. Tattoo AU

“Come on ‘mione are you gonna weasel out of this one too?”

“Ey, use something else if you gonna be a prick.”

“Pardon me mister high horse who put you on there?”

“Shut up all of you, I’m going in.”

This was all Bellatrix heard from her seat by the window, business had been slow the last couple of days but that wasn’t as big a surprise really. Yule had started and most of the dumb purebloods youngsters had returned to their ancestor's mansions, now the only people walking the streets were the Muggle-born and the wizards that couldn’t give a second thought about the celebration. She herself was not returning home as the entire family had prior arrangements that barred them from getting together this year. As it had done the year before too, she didn’t mind, drinking alone in at night with a book was fun too.

“Knock, knock, knock.” she heard someone at the door.

“It’s open just push,” she called out as she put down her book, ‘maybe the last customer to end ou the year with.’ she thought before she saw the girl that had just walked in her store.

No, this was not someone she was gonna tattoo this evening. The girl was holding a piece of paper looking down embarrassed as it seemed.that was the first sign she saw as the moved closer, she was used to nervous clients or people on the fence who wanted a tattoo. But this girl was neither, she was here and embarrassed about being there.

“I’m here to get a…” she trailed off looking out of the window, as Bellatrix followed her line of sight she saw a small group of young adults standing there, excitedly talking among themselves.

“Those your friends?” Bellatrix asked the girl.

She nodded once, still not wanting to meet the older woman's eyes.

“Will they be very pissed off if I told them to bugger off?” she asked, wanting to give the girl some kind of input in what she was about to do.

The girl took a moment to think as she looked up for the first time, as their eyes met both of them were breathless for a moment, losing time as they looked in each other's eyes. It was one of the boys outside that mad an obscenely loud sound that pulled them both out of the moment.

“I don’t think they will  be too pissed,” the girl said, ‘she speaks!’ Bella thought as she nodded and walked over to the door.

“Hey! Assholes get the fuck out on here! Night’s over!” she yelled out into the dark street where now a posse of children was running for, what they thought was, their life. 

“That should do it,” Bellatrix said as she closed the door again. She hadn’t noticed how cold the outside world had gotten since she had planted herself next to the fire.

“I don’t know how to thank you…” the girl started, reaching for her purse.

“No need to thank me, just make sure you tell them that pushing a tattoo on someone is not being good friends,” she told her.

“I’ll keep it in mind,” she said as she zipped up her coat and made her way into the dark cold streets again, “Happy Yule,” she said as she set foot on the street again.

“Happy Yule.”

 

* * *

 

Yule passes as did the new year, Bella didn’t complain about the number of customers she had serviced on new years day, it seemed that the bad tradition of tattooing the current year had yet to die down. It took till then to see the girl again.it was January second most people were still simmering down from the new year.

She was standing on the other side of the road like she had seen a hundred other clients standing there. She was again holding a piece of paper like last time, but now she was alone. She was looking up, a good sign Bella noted, and after a moment she made her first couple of steps across the road.

Bellatrix hurried back to the window, not wanting her presence be know, or be seen creepily staring out the window.

“Knock, knock, knock,” again there was the knocking.

“It’s open, just push,” she called out again.

As the girl entered she got up to meet the expected customer. “Good afternoon, who do I have the pleasure of doing business with today?” she asked partly to fill out the forms but also for curiosity sake, as she never got her name.

“Hermione Granger and I would like to have this tattooed,” she said as she handed her the paper.

On it was an incredibly detailed mountain inside of a triangle, while she was looking part of the drawing moved a bit. Oh, she was going to like to tattoo this Bellatrix though as she asked a couple more questions of the which before they got started.


	15. a wedding

This is what she had wanted, this had been the one thing that seemed out of reach since they had met all those years before. He had been a year ahead of her and when her eyes first laid on him, she could have sworn that she swooned. Sitting down to put on the sorting hat, she had stared in his eyes. They were a brilliant brown colour, in the light of the thousand candles that lit the Great Hall a thousand small stars twinkled in them.

It only took till her second year that they first had a private conversation, Slytherins and Hufflepuffs don’t usually hang out together but it wasn’t that uncommon for the two houses to group together. This time it had been over the quidditch game between the Hufflepuffs and the Gryffindors. As usual, they had pledged their support to the puffs, yelling the chants and mixing in the stands to form a united front against the Gryffindors. Ravenclaw was standing to the side, already out of the running for the win at the end of the year so they just observed.

Excusing herself to get some snacks, she had left Bellatrix alone, not that she minded, and descended the stairs to the little snack table the house elves had set up under the stadium. Picking out a couple of pieces, she turned and walked right into Tonks’ arms. Looking back on it now, she smiled insistently, it had been their first face to face meeting and she’d ruined it by dunking him in scoldingly hot coffee. She had apologised profusely, but Ted had taken it in stride; after assuring that he was okay to her, he’d ask her out, for a real date with some coffee that didn’t have to be dunked all over him. She felt bad for him and didn’t at all dislike the idea of getting to know him better. After promising to write and meet up sometime, she had returned to her sister. Bellatrix had hexed at least four out of the seven players on the field.

Their first date, if it could be called that, was fun, they talked about all the things they had done in school, Ted told her about what next year would bring and she had told him about everything that the Slytherins had been up to since the beginning of the year, which honestly had been quite a lot. Bella had spent her first couple of years cultivating her power and was well on her way to be the head of the students. She had been dead set on defeating the Gryffindors at the only thing they were best at, quidditch, and her rallying had worked. Gryffindor was a close second to Hufflepuff who were in first place. If she couldn’t defeat them with her own houses team, Bellatrix had argued, she would do it with another one.

They had gone on several more of these coffee dates; they were a nice activity they enjoyed over the weekend. They got to know one another. After one date where Andromeda had been talking about her home life, Teddy had been evasive for the first time. He had described his home life vaguely and when she had asked some more questions to clarify, he led the conversation back to her own home life. Not that she minded it very much, there was a lot of things to be said about her own home life. When the summer came she discovered why he had been as evasive as he had been.

Ted Tonks was not from magical decent, not even from one side of his parents, he was a muggle-born. This news had been a shock to her; during the summer there had been a two-week period where she didn’t talk with anyone, digging through the Black ancestral library she was looking for ways to recognise muggle-born wizards. But any book she found that talked about the subject was vague on how to recognise them or just plain wrong. Ted didn’t show any of the signs that were listed in the books; he was just a normal wizard from the wrong lineage. After the second week of research and finding no solid ground to stand on, Andromeda made a decision, one that would have long-lasting consequences.

The next letter she got from Ted invited her to a concert not far outside of the Leaky Cauldron. Following the line of the decision she had made, Andy sneaked out of the mansion through one of the fireplaces, they had fun that night, the first of many. Their relationship grew and grew over the next couple of years; Bellatrix ignored it gracefully, recognising that they might be in love but that there would be arranged marriages on the horizon for all three of them. Narcissa, junior to them by a couple of years, was less amicable; her first month at Hogwarts she had been like a vampire stuck to Andy’s neck, never leaving her alone for more than a couple of minutes. She and Ted had had enough of it after that month; she had sneaked out of the Slytherin dungeon up to the Hufflepuff common room. There she had joined her boyfriend in his bed and started to sleep there for the remainder of the year. She had gotten a couple of strange looks that morning, but she had been left to her own devices for the rest of the year.

Arriving back at home, her father had waited for her arrival at King’s Cross. He had been talking with a couple of other wizards before he noticed her. As he saw her, he walked up and gave her his congratulations and a letter giving her the down low on her arranged marriage. The letter contained the net worth of the guy, a short explanation of how influential his family was and also the date and location of the marriage she was expected to show up to.

This had been the final straw that did her in; letting the letter fall, she apparated away, not to the mansion as her father expected. No, she had apparated to the closed up venue of the first concert she and Ted had seen together. She had sent him a Patronus message to come to the first place they went to outside of the castle walls. He had walked in several moments later, still in his jeans and t-shirt he had put on before they arrived in London. He had planned to go and have some fun with mates before the summer vacation started and everyone split up.

As he arrived, she had been bawling her eyes out, not knowing what to do, where to go. He had been comforting her for a bit when she had given him the rundown of the letter and its implications. Ted had then thought for a moment before he pulled out a ring and dropped to one knee. He proposed then and there, promising to love her and stay with her till the end of his mortal days. Taken aback for a second, she accepted.

Now a month later she stood behind a curtain shielding her from the ceremony. It had been a hard month not seeing her sisters, getting a letter officially throwing her out of the black family, by name only. She still had access to the Black fortune; it was seemingly the one thing that her mother could do for her. There had been no further contact between them, not even her sisters had given her signs of life. She had sent both of them a multitude of owls making inquiries about what they were doing. But all of them had fallen on deaf ears.

The last owl she had sent both of them was the invitation for the wedding between her and Ted. She had hoped that they would at least respond to it; it was a massive event in her life and she wanted them to be a part of it. But they had been as silent about that one as they had been about all the others.

“Andy?” Morrigan called out; it was Ted’s mother. She and her husband had housed her for the past month. They had been a pillar in her life that gave some tangible stability.

“Is it time?” she asked, taking the bouquet in her hands and checked once more in the mirror. “Time to face the music,” she murmured as she took a step towards the curtain that separated her with the rest of the ceremony.

Letting out the last breath she had been holding for a while now, she stepped through the curtain, and for a moment all she could see was the back of people's heads, just before they all turned to face her. She scanned the crowd to see if there was a mass of black curls present or some platinum blonde straight hair.


	16. Burn baby burn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this was written with the prompt to write this line in it; "The most fucked up thing is that despite all this, you’re still the only good friend I have"

They had been battling for a couple of minutes now, all around them spells where fired and deflected. It had been a small miracle that they hadn’t been hit by a ricocheted spell. There was no time to duck if that happens but she’ll deal with that later now she had to focus. Right in front of her was her current focus, the one person she needed to defeat.

“Come on  _ muddy  _ give it all you got!” she heard her yell. 

It hurt, it had hurt for a while now. She looked over to where Bellatrix was standing,  a crazed look in her eyes, firing off spell after spell from her wand. Not all were aimed at her, she was also picking off people behind her who had their backs turned. Every time she heard a scream cut off she knew that Bellatrix had hit her mark.

“Can’t you just  _ stop _ !” she yelled, letting her wand spew out some of the darker curses that she had read about in the darkest corner of the school's library.

She could see Bella’s eyes light up; that curse had caught her attention. For a moment she could see the Bellatrix she had gotten to know in those short couple of days in the Malfoy Manor.

Taking her chance, Hermione didn’t hesitate. “ _ Bella _ ! Please stop this madness!” she pleaded with the woman that stood before her, and for just that moment, right then, Bellatrix lost her flow.

The flow she had worked up of casting blocking charms so she was completely protected while firing all kinds of spells when one protege ended before she cast the next one. And then Hermione hit her mark.

Flames erupted from her wand, and for a moment it seemed that they had been blocked when the black witch paused, keeping the shield up. She started to laugh when smoke started to come out of her mouth alongside the cackling.

Hermione took a moment to take a look at the damage she had done before she started to sprint over to Bellatrix.

The dark witch looked at the girl sprinting over to her, but it didn’t matter, she had done what she had promised when they had first met. ‘I’ll end you!’ she had heard her yell; it had been funny back then, but now she had done it.

She could feel the familiar pain of being burned from the inside that her darling spell would impact on anyone she pointed her wand at. But this was different, where first she was holding her wand up it had now clattered on the floor. Her sight started to cloud up, the last thing she could discern was a mass of brown hair covering her whole vision.

She could smell it now, that awful smell; she hated it never wanted to smell it again. The smoke started to creep out of her pores where it could, where it hadn’t burned through her skin.

“The most fucked up thing is that despite all this, you’re still the only good friend I had,” she said out loud as clear as she could.

It must have been an illusion when she could hear someone sobbing close to her ears, ‘that must not be for me surely,’ she thought as orange started to fill her vision, before ending itt altogether.


	17. The Story of a Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was And Get Some Nice Things Along The Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adaptation of The Story of a Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was  
> Bellatrix is the youngest sibling for a change

A certain father had three daughters, the elder of whom was smart and sensible, and could do everything, a second whom was a jack of all traits, but the younger was stupid and could neither learn nor understand anything, and when people saw her they said 'there's a lass who will give her father some trouble.' When anything had to be done, it was always the elder who was forced to do it, but if her father bade her fetch anything when it was late, or in the night-time, and the way led through the churchyard, or any other dismal place, she answered 'oh, no, father, I'll not go there, it makes me shudder.' For she was afraid.  Or when stories were told by the fire at night which made the flesh creep, the listeners sometimes said 'oh, it makes us shudder.' The younger sat in a corner and listened with the rest of them, and could not imagine what they could mean.  'They are always saying 'it makes me shudder, it makes me shudder,  it does not make me shudder.' Thought she.  'That, too, must be an art of which I understand nothing.' 

Now it came to pass that her father said to her one day 'hearken to me, you lass in the corner there, you are growing tall and strong, and you too must learn something by which you can earn your bread. Look how your sister works, but you do not even earn your salt.' 'Well, father, she replied,  'I am quite willing to learn something - indeed, if it could but be managed, I should like to learn how to shudder.  I don't understand that at all yet.' The elder sister smiled when she heard that, and thought to herself 'good God, what a blockhead that sister of mine is. She will never be good for anything as long as she lives.  She who wants to be a sickle must bend herself betimes.' The father sighed, and answered her 'you shall soon learn what it is to shudder, but you will not earn your bread by that.' Soon after this the sexton came to the house on a visit, and the father bewailed his trouble, and told him how his younger daughter was so backward in every respect that she knew nothing and learnt nothing. 'Just think,  said he,  'when I asked her how she was going to earn Her bread, she actually wanted to learn to shudder.' 'If that be all, replied the sexton,  'she can learn that with me.  Send her to me, and I will soon polish her.' The father was glad to do it, for he thought 'it will train the girl a little.' The sexton therefore took him into his house, and she had to ring the church bell.  After a day or two, the sexton awoke her at midnight, and bade her arise and go up into the church tower and ring the bell. 'You shall soon learn what shuddering is,  thought he, and secretly went there before her, and when the girl was at the top of the tower and turned round, and was just going to take hold of the bell rope, he saw a white figure standing on the stairs opposite the sounding hole.  'Who is there.' Cried she, but the figure made no reply, and did not move or stir. 'Give an answer,  cried the girl,  'or take yourself off, you have no business here at night.'

The sexton, however, remained standing motionless that the girl might think he was a ghost.  The girl cried a second time 'what do you want here. - Speak if you are an honest fellow, or I will throw you down the steps.' The sexton thought 'she can't mean to be as bad as his words,  uttered no sound and stood as if he were made of stone.  Then the girl called to him for the third time, and as that was also to no purpose, he ran against him and pushed the ghost down the stairs, so that it fell down ten steps and remained lying there in a corner. Thereupon she rang the bell, went home, and without saying a word went to bed, and fell asleep.  The sexton's wife waited a long time for her husband, but he did not come back.  At length she became uneasy, and wakened the girl, and asked 'do you not know where my husband is. He climbed up the tower before you did.' 'No, I don't know, replied the girl,  'but someone was standing by the sounding hole on the other side of the steps, and as he would neither give an answer nor go away, I took him for a scoundrel, and threw him downstairs.  Just go there and you will see if it was he.  I should be sorry if it were.' The woman ran away and found her husband, who was lying moaning in the corner, and had broken his leg. 

She carried him down, and then with loud screams she hastened to the girl's father.  'Your daughter,  cried she,  'has been the cause of a great misfortune.  She has thrown my husband down the steps so that he broke his leg.  Take the good-for-nothing lass out of our house.' The father was terrified, and ran thither and scolded the girl.  'What wicked tricks are these.' Said he,  'the devil must have put them into your head.' 'Father,  she replied, 'do listen to me.  I am quite innocent.  He was standing there by night like one intent on doing evil.  I did not know who it was, and I entreated him three times either to speak or to go away.' 'Ah,  said the father,  'I have nothing but unhappiness with you.  Go out of my sight.  I will see you no more.'

'Yes, father, right willingly, wait only until it is day.  Then will I go forth and learn how to shudder, and then I shall, at any rate, understand one art which will support me.' 'Learn what you will, spoke the father,  'it is all the same to me. Here are fifty galleons  for you.  Take these and go into the wide world, and tell no one from whence you come, and who is your father, for I have reason to be ashamed of you.' 'Yes, father, it shall be as you will.  If you desire nothing more than that, I can easily keep it in mind.' 

When day dawned, therefore, the girl put his fifty galleons  into his pocket, and went forth on the great highway, and continually said to herself 'if I could but shudder.  If I could but shudder.' Then a man approached who heard this conversation which the youth was holding with herself, and when they had walked a little farther to where they could see the gallows, the man said to her 'look, there is the tree where seven men have married the ropemaker's daughter, and are now learning how to fly.  Sit down beneath it, and wait till night comes, and you will soon learn how to shudder.' 'If that is all that is wanted, answered the youth,  'it is easily done, but if I learn how to shudder as fast as that, you shall have my fifty galleons .  Just come back to me early in the morning.' Then the youth went to the gallows, sat down beneath it, and waited till evening came. And as she was cold, she lighted herself a fire, but at midnight the wind blew so sharply that in spite of her fire, she could not get warm.  And as the wind knocked the hanged men against each other, and they moved backwards and forwards, she thought to himself 'if you shiver below by the fire, how those up above must freeze and suffer.' And as she felt pity for them, she raised the ladder, and climbed up, unbound one of them after the other, and brought down all seven.  Then she stoked the fire, blew it, and set them all round it to warm themselves.  But they sat there and did not stir, and the fire caught their clothes. So she said 'take care, or I will hang you up again.' The dead men, however, did not hear, but were quite silent, and let their rags go on burning.  At this she grew angry, and said 'if you will not take care, I cannot help you, I will not be burnt with you,  and she hung them up again each in his turn. Then she sat down by his fire and fell asleep, and the next morning the man came to him and wanted to have the fifty galleons , and said 'well, do you know how to shudder.' 'No, answered she,  'how should I know.  Those fellows up there did not open their mouths, and were so stupid that they let the few old rags which they had on their bodies get burnt.' Then the man saw that he would not get the fifty galleons  that day, and went away saying 'such a youth has never come my way before.' The youth likewise went her way, and once more began to mutter to herself 'ah, if I could but shudder. Ah, if I could but shudder.' A waggoner who was striding behind her heard this and asked 'who are you.' 'I don't know, answered the youth.  Then the waggoner asked 'from whence do you come.' 'I know not.' 'Who is your father.' 'That I may not tell you.' 'What is it that you are always muttering between your teeth.' 'Ah, replied the youth,  'I do so wish I could shudder, but no one can teach me how.' 'Enough of your foolish chatter,  said the waggoner.  'Come, go with me, I will see about a place for you.' The youth went with the waggoner, and in the evening they arrived at an inn where they wished to pass the night.  Then at the entrance of the parlor the youth again said quite loudly 'if I could but shudder.  If I could but shudder.' The host who heard this, laughed and said 'if that is your desire, there ought to be a good opportunity for you here.' 'Ah, be silent,  said the hostess,  'so many prying persons have already lost their lives, it would be a pity and a shame if such beautiful eyes as these should never see the daylight again.' But the youth said 'however difficult it may be, I will learn it.  For this purpose indeed have I journeyed forth.' She let the host have no rest, until the latter told him, that not far from thence stood a haunted castle where any one could very easily learn what shuddering was, if he would but watch in it for three nights.  The king had promised that they who would venture should have his daughter to wife, and she was the most beautiful maiden the sun shone on.  Likewise in the castle lay great treasures, which were guarded by evil spirits, and these treasures would then be freed, and would make a poor man rich enough. Already many men had gone into the castle, but as yet none had come out again.  Then the youth went next morning to the king and said 'if it be allowed, I will willingly watch three nights in the haunted castle.' The king looked at her, and as the youth pleased him for once not a man, he said 'you may ask for three things to take into the castle with you, but they must be things without life.' Then she answered 'then I ask for a fire, a turning lathe, and a cutting-board with the knife.' The king had these things carried into the castle for her during the day. When night was drawing near, the youth went up and made herself a bright fire in one of the rooms, placed the cutting-board and knife beside it, and seated himself by the turning-lathe.  'Ah, if I could but shudder.' Said she,  'but I shall not learn it here either.' Towards midnight she was about to poke her fire, and as she was blowing it, something cried suddenly from one corner 'au, miau.  How cold we are.' 'You fools.' Cried she,  'what are you crying about.  If you are cold, come and take a seat by the fire and warm yourselves.' And when she had said that, two great black cats came with one tremendous leap and sat down on each side of her, and looked savagely at her with their fiery eyes.  After a short time, when they had warmed themselves, they said 'comrade, shall we have a game of cards.' 'Why not.' She replied,  'but just show me your paws.' Then they stretched out their claws.  'Oh, said she,  'what long nails you have.  Wait, I must first cut them for you.' Thereupon she seized them by the throats, put them on the cutting-board and screwed their feet fast. 'I have looked at your fingers,  said she,  'and my fancy for card-playing has gone, and she struck them dead and threw them out into the water.  But when she had made away with these two, and was about to sit down again by his fire, out from every hole and corner came black cats and black dogs with red-hot chains, and more and more of them came until he could no longer move, and they yelled horribly, and got on her fire, pulled it to pieces, and tried to put it out. She watched them for a while quietly, but at last when they were going too far, she seized her cutting-knife, and cried 'away with you, vermin, and began to cut them down. Some of them ran away, the others he killed, and threw out into the fish-pond.  When he came back she fanned the embers of his fire again and warmed herself.  And as she thus sat, her eyes would keep open no longer, and she felt a desire to sleep.  Then she looked round and saw a great bed in the corner. 'That is the very thing for me,  said she, and got into it.  When she was just going to shut his eyes, however, the bed began to move of its own accord, and went over the whole of the castle. 'That's right, said she,  'but go faster.' Then the bed rolled on as if six horses were harnessed to it, up and down, over thresholds and stairs, but suddenly hop, hop, it turned over upside down, and lay on her like a mountain.  But she threw quilts and pillows up in the air, got out and aid 'now anyone who likes, may drive, and lay down by her fire, and slept till it was day.  In the morning the king came, and when he saw her lying there on the ground, he thought the evil spirits had killed her and she was dead.  Then said he 'after all it is a pity, -- for so handsome a woman.' The youth heard it, got up, and said 'it has not come to that yet.' Then the king was astonished, but very glad, and asked how she had fared.  'Very well indeed, answered she,  'one night is past, the two others will pass likewise.' Then she went to the innkeeper, who opened his eyes very wide, and said 'I never expected to see you alive again.  Have you learnt how to shudder yet.' 'No, said she,  'it is all in vain.  If someone would but tell me.' The second night she again went up into the old castle, sat down by the fire, and once more began his old song 'if I could but shudder.' When midnight came, an uproar and noise of tumbling about was heard, at first it was low, but it grew louder and louder.  Then it was quiet for a while, and at length with a loud scream, half a man came down the chimney and fell before her.  'Hullo.' Cried she,  'another half belongs to this.  This is not enough.' Then the uproar began again, there was a roaring and howling, and the other half fell down likewise.  'Wait, said she,  'I will just stoke up the fire a little for you.' When she had done that and looked round again, the two pieces were joined together, and a hideous man was sitting in his place. 'That is no part of our bargain,  said the youth,  'the bench is mine.' The man wanted to push her away, the youth, however, would not allow that, but thrust him off with all her strength, and seated herself again in his own place.  Then still more men fell down, one after the other, they brought nine dead men's legs and two skulls, and set them up and played at nine-pins with them. The youth also wanted to play and said 'listen you, can I join you.' 'Yes, if you have any money.' Money enough, replied she,  'but your balls are not quite round.' Then he took the skulls and put them in the lathe and turned them till they were round.  'There, now they will roll better.' Said she. 'Hurrah.  Now we'll have fun.' She played with them and lost some of her money, but when it struck twelve, everything vanished from her sight.  She lay down and quietly fell asleep.  Next morning the king came to inquire after her.  'How has it fared with you this time.' Asked he.  'I have been playing at nine-pins,  she answered,  'and have lost a couple of farthings.' 'Have you not shuddered then.' 'What.' Said she,  'I have had a wonderful time.  If I did but know what it was to shudder.' The third night she sat down again on her bench and said quite sadly 'if I could but shudder.' When it grew late, six tall men came in and brought a coffin.  Then said she 'ha, ha, that is certainly my little cousin, who died only a few days ago, and she beckoned with his finger, and cried 'come, little cousin, come.' They placed the coffin on the ground, but she went to it and took the lid off, and a dead man lay therein. She felt his face, but it was cold as ice.  'Wait, said she,  'I will warm you a little, and went to the fire and warmed his hand and laid it on the dead man's face, but he remained cold.  Then she took him out, and sat down by the fire and laid him on his breast and rubbed his arms that the blood might circulate again.  As this also did no good, he thought to herself 'when two people lie in bed together, they warm each other, and carried him to the bed, covered him over and lay down by him.  After a short time the dead man became warm too, and began to move. Then said the youth,  'see, little cousin, have I not warmed you.' The dead man, however, got up and cried 'now will I strangle you.' 'What.' Said she,  'is that the way you thank me.  You shall at once go into your coffin again,  and she took him up, threw him into it, and shut the lid.  Then came the six men and carried him away again.  'I cannot manage to shudder, said she.  'I shall never learn it here as long as I live.' Then a man entered who was taller than all others, and looked terrible.  He was old, however, and had a long white beard. 'You wretch,  cried he,  'you shall soon learn what it is to shudder, for you shall die.' 'Not so fast, replied the youth. 'If I am to die, I shall have to have a say in it.' 'I will soon seize you, said the fiend.  'Softly, softly, do not talk so big.  I am as strong as you are, and perhaps even stronger.' 'We shall see, said the old man.  'If you are stronger, I will let you go - come, we will try.' Then he led him by dark passages to a smith's forge, took an axe, and with one blow struck an anvil into the ground.  'I can do better than that, said the youth, and went to the other anvil.  The old man placed himself near and wanted to look on, and his white beard hung down.  Then the youth seized the axe, split the anvil with one blow, and in it caught the old man's beard.  'Now I have you, said the youth.  'Now it is your turn to die.' Then he seized an iron bar and beat the old man till he moaned and entreated her to stop, when he would give her great riches. The youth drew out the axe and let him go.  The old man led her back into the castle, and in a cellar showed him three chests full of gold. 'Of these, said he, 'one part is for the poor, the other for the king, the third yours.' In the meantime it struck twelve, and the spirit disappeared, so that  the youth stood in darkness.  'I shall still be able to find my way out, said she and felt about, found the way into the room, and slept there by her fire.  Next morning the king came and said 'now you must have learnt what shuddering is.' 'No, she answered 'what can it be. My dead cousin Sirius was here, and a bearded man came and showed me a great deal of money down below, but no one told me what it was to shudder.' 'Then, said the king,  'you have saved the castle, and shall marry my daughter.' 'That is all very well, said she,  'but still I do not know what it is to shudder.' Then the gold was brought up and the wedding celebrated, but howsoever much the young queen loved her wife, and however happy she was, she still said always 'if I could but shudder - if I could but shudder.' And this at last angered her.  Her waiting-maid said 'I will find a cure for her, she shall soon learn what it is to shudder.  She went out to the stream which flowed through the garden, and had a whole bucketful of larvae brought to her. 

At night when the young queen was sleeping, her wife was to draw the clothes off him and empty the bucketful of cold water with the larvae in it over her, so that the little fishes would sprawl about him.  Then she woke up and cried 'oh, what makes me shudder so. – What makes me shudder so, dear wife.  Ah. Now I know what it is to shudder.' Thank you my dearest wife, your are my biggest treasure Hermione.

 


	18. Bellamione kills the Harry Potter Universe

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

Both of them stood there for a moment wands to the side, looking out over the battlefield that was expanding across the castle. He had started his siege and now almost five hours later there was no more than a stalemate going on. Both sides had been successful in picking off a couple of people at a time. But there were always more to fill the ranks, on the orders side, they had the volunteers, the underrepresented, the oppressed, fighting for the elite that wasted a chance in the system that they could shape to fit them more. The death eaters side was filled out with the purebloods and their entourage. Many bodies were available to pad out those ranks, most of them were from a lower blood status but as they were employed by the elite, they had little choice in the matter.

In the end, it didn’t matter, both sides couldn’t care less about the people that fell in this war. Chance was inevitable but what kind it was would benefit the people at the top over anyone else. If Lord Voldemort managed to pull out a victory there would be more violence for a while but then it would stop and everyone would be marching in line, free thought would be dead but the country wouldn’t suffer all that much. The order winning would be the same as keeping the same old rules and laws that this country had enacted for the past couple of decades. All in all, it didn’t matter, and that was exactly why they were here. Starting as a promise than a deal and eventually an unbreakable vow, they would stand together.

The purest soul with a shadow as black as tar, and her companion, the most beautiful woman you’d ever see from a distance but up close the scars became innumerable. Nothing would stop them in their wrath.

“Remember the deal?” Bellatrix asked as she did every time.

“It’d be a shame if I did,” Hermione answered.

“Good good, you think they noticed that you disappeared?”

“Nope told them that I needed to take a leak and he just accepted it,” she spoke, “what an idiot believes that you have to go to the toilet in the middle of a siege. But yeah, no-one would have noticed it. You?”

“He was busy wandering around the forbidden forest when I left him and I don’t see him moving from that position any time soon,” she answered.

“So, we good to start?” Hermione asked, more as a formality than in reaction to what they were about to try and do.

“Yup, we’re about to have so much fun.”

 

* * *

 

There were few reports from that day, anyone that could have reported it had been murdered brutally and the assailants were a mystery to the majority of the population. But some people knew and they were very very afraid to be right.

 

* * *

 

“Which one you get there?” she yelled over the myriad of explosions that were going off around them. The battle might have taken a turn but the firepower that was exerted had not yet changed to deal with the new threat.

“I think it was the one that wasn’t earless?” 

“I think that would have been George?” Hermione said wondering for a second while parrying a hex that had been thrown her way by a masked member of the death eaters forces. they weren’t particularly good at fighting but there was strength in numbers. That was till they were forced to pick a fight with the two of them. One of which had been a general in their army, the confusion about that fact had put at least five of them down on the ground, and then two more when they tried to regroup. Bella had been liberal with a bunch of curses, but Hermione had been like a scalpel. Aiming the killing curse person to person, knowing they couldn’t defend themselves against it.

“Does it look like I care with of the red-headed pack of mutts I kill?” Bellatrix asked as she managed to blow the side out of a Ravenclaw student. A short pang of regret flew through her as she saw the body crumple and then drop to the floor. It was a shame it had come so far but a vow was a vow.

_ ‘Iether we kill them all, or they kill us,’  _ Bellatrix had said during one of their meetings. It had been said as a throwaway line, but now it held more gravitas. It had been something that she had been saying to herself for several months and now they had started it was as much a letter of reality as it was true. They would have to kill a lot of people before they made it out alive, and preferably they would be able to kill them all. If they left no witnesses there would not be a lot of complications with the next stages of their plan.

“I suppose you don’t,” she paused to shield herself from a nasty curse that deflected onto the poor person Bellatrix had put her intentions.

“Could you look out with those curses,” she yelled in her directions, knowing full well that it had been deflected from a different source. Even when they worked together Bellatrix would try to fight her.

At first, that had been scary, a middle-aged witch coming at you was not something every person on this earth wanted. Hermione was partially in that category. She had taken a step back but at the time, she had also heard a voice in her head yelling to stand still and take whatever punishment Bellatrix had ready for when they collided. They hadn’t but her mind had not let her rest for about a week when it started to roll through scenarios that ranged from archaic punishments to modern versions to thoughts that she couldn’t classify as pure anymore.

Finishing off the last couple of minions that were still running around in the stupid outfits that Voldemort had designed himself cause he wouldn’t trust anyone else with them. All the members of his army wore a black robe that had a simple protego spell cast on them to not be caught off guard. This didn’t help much, or at all, as a simple stone could break that spell if thrown hard enough, most spells, curses or hexes where of a calibre larger than just a simple stone.

“Done,” she announced as she looked over to the bloodbath that stood in absolute contrast to her side of the hall. Where she had a bunch of corpses with little damage done to them except the fact they were all dead, Bellatrix had been blowing things up and ripping them apart. Her choice to cast a Bubble-Head Charm in herself, giving herself a supply of fresh air.

The walls and floor were sticky with a combination of bodily fluids and blood that was dripping down the wall.

It took a moment for her to reorient herself, with all the debris and body parts laying around but then she saw the faint letters on the wall across from her. The message was mostly gone but when the blood was dripping down it, it absorbed it into the letters once more.

“The heir,” Bellatrix read, “what’s all this about?”

“Oh, in my second year, we had some trouble with His horcrux in that journal of his. I think that it was Lucius that had been told to handle that in His absence. Long story short, it ended up in the hands of the Weasley girl, I got petrified by a basilisk and Potter managed to destroy the Horcrux with the poison of the snake.”

“He was always useless that idiot, still don’t see why he had been trusted with that important relic, but I can always ask when we get rid of him,” she wondered out loud.

Hermione looked down the hall that split of the one they were standing in. not a soul could be seen in there. Everyone that had seen them was either death or very scared and not showing their faces. She’d have to make a not to comb the castle when they were done with the bulk of their opponents. She had the map that she had taken from Harry a couple of years back. The copy he carried around had been some trouble to make but now she could hide her own position on the copy. It had not been her intention to use it in this way but it had been a happy accident. Not that she imagined that Harry would remember the map, less where he had put it. Last she checked her copy had been in the tent that they had abandoned when the snatchers had come to get them.

She could hear the notable taps on the floor as Bellatrix approached her in her high heels. She was still a bit bewildered that her partner in crime and more though that the appropriate attire for this event was high heels and a black dress corset combo that would have restricted the movement of lesser women, but not her, Bellatrix stood tall, more so than usual. She now towered over her, she had a significant height advantage over her. 

“Let’s go,” Hermione said as she started making her way toward the grand staircase. As they approached the sounds of the battle started getting louder and louder again.

“We doing this the…” before the last word was out of her mouth Bellatrix threw herself forward firing off at least five curses and hexes before she was even spotted. The battle around them didn’t pause but there was a certain shift toward them as they started to make bigger and bigger waves. Hermione couldn't feel bad, they had been planning this for a while, nothing would be done if either side won so. So they decided to finish it all, both sides could rot so let them rot together. It wasn’t a perfect strategy but for now, it worked quite nicely. Just kill the person before you till you hit a wall that you can’t kill, then turn and repeat. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Bellatrix ripping her way through the mass of people that had their backs turned to them. Taking all the advantage she could get she exploded part of the wall and used the debris to pummel her way through them. She could hear the bones breaking and shattering inside the bodies and see them grow limp as they hit a wall or a nice of rock. It was unsettling, to say the least.

 

* * *

 

“Bella, can you explain to me how our daughter is watching that horror movie we made ten years ago?” Hermione asked the air in the room, loud enough to be heard but silent enough that Bellatrix would have to rise from her sitting area.

“What dearest?” she heard from the hallway connecting her office and lounge to the seating area that had been put aside for the entertainment system.

Upon entering the room, she saw Alice look up from the screen and smiled a bit, till she saw Hermione looking sternly at her. 

“You know why this is happening?” she asked again.

“I wouldn’t know I’ve been in my office all day. She might have put it on herself. Have you considered that?”

While they stood there, Alice had gotten up from her seat on the couch and walked over to the screen, reaching out every time her moms were on the screen.

“Okay so she might have done that,” Hermione conceded.

Pulling her closer for a kiss she moved the both of them over to the couch, it was the weekend and their daughter picked not the worst movie that was in their collection. Looking over she saw her wife eye a particular disk that she would have to hide soon. No-one except them two should ever watch what was on that.


	19. let's read this one shal we




	20. There is more




	21. Stubborn to a fault

“Hermione!” Ginny came storming into the room waking her form a nap she had been taking between study hours.

“Aaugh,” was all that came from her mouth at that moment, having been interrupted she was not in the mood to listen to anyone, even less interested into moving from the comfortable bed that she had been occupying since the beginning of the summer. She had been rooming with Ginny with wouldn’t be so much of a deal, they understand that they both needed different things. While she would take the time to plan out the time she would be spending studying, Ginny had chosen the more freeform approach to prepare her next year.

Now Ginny had stormed in and was seconds away from jumping on her bed and straddling her, shaking her awake. As she opened her eyes she could see the red mane making a streak through the air. Already anticipating the impact she did exactly what her body had done the first time she had pulled that trick, relaxing she moved with the bed as Ginny’s hit the mattress with enough force that she wasn’t entirely sure how it was still standing.

“Hermione,” Ginny repeated herself in an even more excited manner than she had managed when she more or less kicked the door in, “we need you downstairs. Your presence is needed, no required,” she corrected herself halfway through what she said. Knowing full well that if she hadn’t put a task there that she needed to complete, she would have just ignored it outright, rolling over and continuing the nap then and there.

“Ginerva,” she didn’t pull it out a lot but the situation and the precedence it might set, “I hope that you are on good footing with Merlin, cause I’m gonna put you in a long sleep if this is just something childish,” she announced as she slowly rose from her bed ignoring the closeness that she was now to the younger Weasley girl.

Ginny looked more scandalised than herself. This was all despite the fact that the was dressed in little more than a large shirt she had bought a time back for exactly this purpose, as she hadn’t anticipated being interrupted she had shed the rest of the outfit that she would have donned if she wasn’t sleeping. Pushing her off the bed where she saw her catching herself on her side and rose to her feet quickly.

“I’ll be there in a moment, let me grab some sweats,” she told her as she stretched her arms till the point that her elbows made a satisfying pop. having closed her eyes then she waited till Ginny had left the room and closed the door behind herself. She opened them up and grabbed her wand summoning her sweatpants to her. Putting them on she checked out how she looked, not that it would matter much to how the next couple of moments would go. She stepped in a couple of slippers that were next to her bed. For a moment she considered to take the blanket with her but even inside the burrow it was hot, and while the sleeping quarters had been shielded from the worst of it, the rest was still in a state of summer staleness.

Making her way down the stairs she noticed that there were a couple of faces she hadn’t seen before in the burrow, next to the usual suspects; Luna, Ginny, there were also the Patil twins, and Parkinson was in attendance. Most of them didn’t seem to notice her as she made her way down the stairs. Hermione would have felt underdressed if she didn’t see that the others were also more or less in their sleeping garments, or at the very least comfy clothing that could do a wonderful job if it would have been asked of it.

As she approached the couch that Parkinson was sitting in she took a moment before she sat down on the other side. She folded her legs beneath her and started to listen in to Luna and Ginny's energetic conversation. She couldn't make out much from what she was hearing, Luna’s calm but wonderfully strange responses didn’t seem to match up with the waterfall of words that came form her conversations partner. She didn’t seem to have noticed her arrival but for the moment she was grateful for that.

“Granger,” Parkinson greeted her, it was cold but not unfriendly, like greeting a person that you might not know personally but wanted to keep it friendly to a point. She looked over to her and she was surprised to see that there was no scowl, or any other negative emotion present on her face. It was just a curious look that was looking her over, for a moment it seemed that her head stopped moving as her eyes passed over her breasts.

She hadn’t deemed it necessary to put on a bra as she hadn’t anticipated company, but as the company was a bunch of girls, she couldn’t be bothered to run back up to put it on and then go down again. Na, she just sunk into the couch and tried to get as comfortable as possible before she would have to, unfortunately, abandon her position.

At that moment it seemed that Ginny finally noticed that she was there, she feared for a second that she might attempt to leap across the small living room but she was luckily helped by the fact that Luna had looped her arms around her middle holding her in place. She was mildly amused by the fact the seemingly frail Luna had the strength to keep the quidditch player in place. A smile crept onto her face as she saw the scene play out and eventually Ginny had to admit defeat to Luna who smiled and pulled her into her own lap.

“So, as we are all here now,” Ginny started looking out over the rest of the assembled assembly, they fell silent to listen to what she had to say, “I haven’t had the chance to explain why you are all here, her eyes fell on the Patil Twins and Pansy who weren’t the people that they would hang out with. Even when Parvati was a Gryffindor she hung out more with her sister and other Ravenclaw students than her own house, in the last couple of years there had been a wider divide but they did keep in touch and were friendly when they worked together. Pansy was a whole different bucket of mystery, she had been a Slytherin and had been a part of Draco’s possy. In her career at Hogwarts, she had annoyed and bullied the other students at some point during the early years but near the end, there had been a couple of moments where they had had a civil discussion between the two of them. Where she had assumed that she was a pure-blood purist, she found out that being a half-blood her stance was fairly lighter than her peers that had done far worse things to them.

“I invited you to play a couple of games and to keep in touch cause otherwise, it would have been like two months and stuff…” she trialled off till Luna pressed a soft kiss against the back of her neck, underneath the freckles she could swear that her cheeks coloured a couple of shades redder. Her breath hitched before she shook her head and started to speak again, more to the point now, “I invited you all to hang out cause I thought it be fun and we get to just be outside of the walls of that dumb castle,” she finished twisting her head to look at Luna, seemingly asking if she needed to say anything else.

Luna took point them letting her soft voice flow out and told us what they had planned for the remainder of the afternoon when the rest of the Weasleys were out and the boys went camping a couple of hours to the north, they weren’t expected to be back in a couple of days. “I thought that we might play a couple of games that are quite popular with the muggle youth for a while; twenty questions, trued or dare, spin the bottle,...” Luna named the games, Hermione recognised them, had even played most of them during her younger days before Hogwarts. Most of the magical students hadn’t heard of the games before and the number of muggle students that did know about them were more enamoured by the magical games that were newer to them. 

“Anyone have a preference what game we start with?” Ginny asked looking at the other people present, only Hermione and Luna seemed to know what the games might entail. As there was a moment of silence she offered them, “what about twenty questions, that’s easy to explain and understand.”

Ginny smiled wide and started to think for a second how to explain how it was played before Luna took over and gave the rules, “One of us picks an object or person and then the rest of us have a total of twenty questions to guess what they are thinking of.” it was short and sweet but also to the point, her appreciation for Luna grew a little there, it was good to know that if the situation asked of it she was able to get information across quickly.

The rest of them seemed to take the pause at the end of her explanation to start talking all at once through one another, Pansy and Parvati had struck up a conversation where Padme and Ginny started to go off about some of the details that the questions might entail. Looking across the room she raised her eyebrow at Luna who didn’t seem all that surprised at the situation that had played out before them. She mouthed to Hermione that she should start them off so that they could get started.

“Okay, y’all I’ve got something in mind,” Hermione announced pulling the attention to herself, “give me your questions.” she used a couple of seconds where they others turned to face her to think of something they could guess. Making sure that she used occlumency to close her mind from attempts of others to look there for the answer.

Ginny started them off, “is it alive?”

“No.”

All of them took a moment to react to that new piece of information, if it wasn’t alive they could throw out all the humans and creatures. But that did mean that they would have to now go through the almost limitless list of object’s or undeath creatures that it left.

“Is it a book?” Padme asked her.

“Yes.”

It was indeed a book but even with that detail, she doubted that they would guess what she had in mind. They talked it over and started taking potshots which books she might have in mind, wasting two questions by asking if it were specific books, they stopped to think about it more logically. The next question was smarter but still not telling them a whole lot.

“Is the book located in the forbidden section of the Hogwarts library?” Pansy asked her.

Smiling a little she answered her after a moment, giving her a short moment of hope before crushing it, “no.”

She frowned and looked at the others, they all took a moment to consider what that answer had told them, which, all in all, was very little, there were almost a couple of thousand other books in the Hogwarts library that it could be if it even was a book in the library. There were hundreds of thousands of books that were outside of the forbidden section, or even outside of the library at the castle.

Ginny asked to confirm their suspicions, “is the book at Hogwarts?”

“No,” she was enjoying this, so far the only thing that they had managed to find out was that it was a book not at Hogwarts and they had used six of the twenty questions already. She suspected that even if they managed to speed up the gathering of information they wouldn’t be able to figure out which book she had chosen.

Luna smiled for a second and took a stab in the dark with her next question, “is this book one that has a young female protagonist?” Hermione’s smile fell for a second, how had she been able to guess that? She was used to Luna knowing certain details but when she hit so close to home it was a bit creepy. She recovered before the twins managed to get clued in but Ginny and Pansy managed to catch her face falling and recovering.

Pansy looked over to Ginny and Luna before she posed her next question, “is the hair colour of the protagonist blonde?”

Damn, they were closing in far to quick with these questions, there were little interpretations when she had answered this question, “Yes.”

Now, Luna, Ginny and Pansy were quickly running through a couple of books, Padme and Parvati looked on and gave some suggestions while they knew that they were basically useless in this part of the conversation, they were purebloods that had had limited exposure to the muggle world so they could only really give examples that Ginny, Luna or Pasny would have thought of before them. The trio looked over to her and made a list between them, Ginny had three fingers up and pointed to herself and luna when the first two went down. She nodded and then they turned back to face her. Her own face still had a smile on it but the eyebrows revealed that she was not all that happy with the current situation.

“Is it the  _ in death  _ series?” Ginny asked her.

She was caught of gaurd for a second, this was not the answer she had expected, they were now on the ninth question and she was pretty sure that they would have to have guessed it already. Waiting to see if it would be Luna or Pansy that would serve the death blow.

“Alice in wonderland,” Luna offered, smiling knowing. She wasn’t sure why, but she had hit so close to the bullseye that she was surprised that she had missed.

“No,” she answered while keeping her focus on Luna for a second, she smiled happily at her answer and kept eye contact with her. She didn’t notice that Pansy had gotten up from her place on the couch and crawled over till her face was mere inches from one another.

“Through the looking glass,” Pansy announced as she moved Hermione's chin with her hand, there had been no question there as she made the statement. Having her there, so close she could take a good look into her eyes, admire the dark brown eyes that had depths that she hadn’t noticed before, she forced herself to look elsewhere, accidently getting distracted by the lips that now captured her attention.

Swallowing to make sure that her throat didn’t dry out, she tried to tell her that she was right but nothing came out first time round. She tried again, now succeeding in getting some sounds out of it. “Yes,” she sounded out of breath and the answer was quite weak, but Pany seemed happy with it. She smiled at her, it was a happy smile and for a second Hermione wasn’t sure if she was just happy to see her smile or if she wanted to press her own lips against hers. But as soon as that thought crossed her mind Luna called out to them all.

“Anyone wanna play some trued or dare?” she asked breaking the moment that was happening between the two of them. Pansy didn’t seem as bothered with it as she quickly sat up and looked expectingly at Luna, this was a game that she seemed to be extra interested in.

Everyone gathered a bit closer as Luna explained the rules that they would be playing with. She was only half listening to the rules as she was now looking at Pansy’s shoulder-length hair seemed to be so much more interesting. She idly wondered how it would feel to have her hands in it and mentally had reached out her arm as she was called back to real life for a moment as Ginny asked her a question.

“Hmn, could you repeat that?” she asked her, looking over to her, there was now an evil looking smile on her face now.

“Just asking if you would like to start?” she asked innocently.

“Sure, am I asking, or am I being asked?” she questioned before she was sure that she made a mistake putting that choice into someone else's hands. She saw Ginny smile become a bit larger as she now held some metaphorical power over her.

“I think that I will be asking,” Ginny announced as she played her move, “trued or dare?” she asked in a very ceremonial way.

“Trued,” she told her.

“Hmn, what would I like to know?” Ginny asked as if she hadn’t thought about that question before, “Would you sleep with your last crush?”

She was stooped for a second, ‘last crush,’ how has she know about that? There were several second where she didn’t dare to look at either the twins or Pansy she realised. Looking up she just looked at Ginny when the answered with a lot more confidence that she wasn’t feeling, “yes.”

“How exciting, Hermione you’re up.” she let her know.

She took a moment before she chose the person that she wanted to ask a question or dare to do something, looking at Ginny and Luna she passed they would probably have some fun later between them two, the twins were an attractive option too but then she looked over to the middle of the couch. Pansy sat there on her knees kinda leaning back onto her legs, she was looking expectinly at Hermione.

“Trued or dare?” she asked her.

“Dare,” Pansy answered looking daringly at her.

So, she had gone there, Hermione thought, now she had to think of something that she would like to have Pansy do. Her thoughts went more and more inappropriate the longer she had to think about it.

“Pansy I dare you to keep in contact with the person that you like the most here,” there was a momentary pause where she took a survey of the group of people before she slowly made herself fall down onto her lap and she shuffled herself so that her middle was between her legs and her head was laying on her boobs. It was a nice feeling having a girl, even better a person she had a crush on being in such close contact.

She was glowing as she kinda blacked out during the lest of the game, settling her arms around her and playing with the hem of her shirt eventually laying her hand flat on her stomach. They settled in comfortably for the rest of the afternoon doing little more but still playing around with each other's hands and pulling on clothes till they could provide access to the skin beneath without revealing much. Not that there was much to be revealed, Hermione hadn’t put on anything underneath her chlothes as she got up from her bed and Pansy had discovered that soon, and she had discovered that there were certain pieces of garment missing on her crushes person.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk this ending is kinda shit cause idk how to contiue on so have it


	22. The Brunette and her Shadow

The following story is not a normal story, this story is one that can be described as spoiling the way that the plot might end. I will tell you that this story, this tale of mine that will be spun right before your very eyes. I can’t promise that it will be a good story but I do pride myself in the fact that it is not the worst story you might read.

Enough about me, I’m sure that you are more interested in what I might have for you now. The story will be about two people. They are not the people you might expect to be but they are in situations that we all might be very familiar with. The first person, a character that is important to let you know that is in this story is one that came from a long and noble family. In contrast, the second person is from a more humble origin. Not that this matters at all in the story but it does give some great insight into what they might do or come from.

But let’s move it on now, we won’t be here forever and the keys that are needing to be pressed are being tapped one by one to make this story appear before you. Here with no more delay is the tale of the brunette and her shadow.

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Morning September twenty-second 1968 - outside Defence against the dark arts

“I can’t believe that you’ve not even been to her class once Bella,” a voice said surprised as they grasped the knowledge from the collective Slytherin year that was present there. They had been talking between the group and when Bellatrix Black had walked up they had needed to do a double take, almost four weeks into the school year and they had not even seen her in the same hallway as the defence against the dark arts classroom. It had been a bit of an upset during the first lesson when the professor had called the names and the silence that had hung in the classroom had been tangible. Simply the look that she had given the class gave them shudders even now.

“Not a lot you can learn if you are not trying to defend yourself from the dark arts,” she said, not raising her voice but making it crystal clear that she didn’t need anyone commenting on that. As she stared them down there was a noise behind her, the familiar noise that could be assigned to pretty much all the doors in the centuries-old castle.

Twisting around on the spot she left the others in the dust as she entered the classroom. It was filled with tables and chairs. Talking a seat in the back she could see the rest of the students enter and pick seats as they walked in. When the door closed again there were still about twenty chairs unoccupied, like the person that had set up the room had expected a far greater audience.

The murmuring between students died out a couple of moments after the door sounded a resounding ‘bong’ through the room. For the first time in about three months, Bellatrix took a moment to look around the classroom, not a lot had changed there were a couple of posters still up from last year but they didn’t seem to be in use as was the bookcase that professor Dunker had been so fond of using. It had been just a dull set piece that had been the introduction of a thousand different lessons, he would walk up to it and pull out a book, open it up and started telling a story. Repetitive but efficient in getting a class silent and started. Now there was nothing that she could see that could do the same, except that her class had fallen silent around her. They seemed to know what was happening and this annoyed her more than it should, the others had been in attendance while she had been reading up on her own.

“Could Miss Black come to the front,” a voice said. Not asking, not commanding but compelling anyway.

As she rose from her chair she noticed that there was now someone sitting at the front of the room. They must have been there before but as her vision had been blocked by the other student is had been hard to keep track of what was happening there. She could see a witch in a professional black robe that extended down to the floor. She could swear that there was a glint of polished shoewear under there but she couldn’t be sure without looking down again, but she wasn’t a Black for nothing, looking down wasn’t expected of her so she didn’t.

Taking the time to walk up to where she was sitting she could get a closer look of the professor and saw to her surprise that she couldn't be much older than she herself was, but as with many things in the wizarding world appearances where more deceiving than most people would give it credit for. But a closer inspection of her features made it clear that they hadn’t yet been touched by any magic yet. 

People who paid attention would be able to see the wrinkles that had formed around the corners of her eyes. They were faint not yet a prominent feature of her face, that position was claimed by the out of this world golden brown eyes that looked like they had tiny flecks of gold in them, she wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the light but there was something there that didn’t seem to be making rational sense.

“Miss Black would you like to let me know why you have been absent for the past three lessons,” again it wasn’t posed as a question, but she was compelled to answer anyway.

“I doubt that anything you can teach me will be for use to me,” it came out with no filter or even diplomatic colouring. No this was just the trued, nothing more or less.

“Hmn,” the professor let out as she looked her over. Never one to back away from a battle of withs Bellatrix stared as deep as she could in those eyes while reminding herself to keep her occlumency shields in place. For the time being her mind was empty and blocked off from anyone trying to get in, this didn’t seem to be one of those times so she started thinking again. Letting her thoughts flow more freely through.

Not looking to the side, or even anywhere but her eyes, she did notice that time was passing around her. There was the faint ticking of the great clock, there was even the sound of the wind blowing around the castle. As she spends most of her time in the dungeons there was still a faint noise that her mind hadn’t filtered out as it would have if she was in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor.

As she was trying to focus on a single fleck of gold in her professor's eyes she broke eyecontact. it was sudden, not something that she had even thought would happen. She felt her body move forward quicker than it should have as she gripped the table to steady herself, she was sure none of her fellow students would have noticed. She was far too quick and agile for that can’t lose face like that in front of them, not as a Black. Her Professor, on the other hand, was privy to watching the whole process up close.

A smirk appeared as she took a closer look at the woman's lips, it was not like it was the first time she was looking at them, to be precise it was the second time in a minute that she had observed them. Without a second thought, she was smitten by them as well as disgusted that there was anything as cute on in the world. And for them to belong to one of the few people she couldn’t just ask to kiss her own.

“Miss Black could you take a seat again.”

“If it is in your lap sure,” she whispered, making sure that only the two of them would be able to hear it as she made her way back to the seat in the back.

“I’m sure we can arrange that,” the response sounded in her ear as she pulled out the chair, her eyes twisted back to the front where she could swear that she was being winked at, no-one else moved a muscle though.

“As you can see...” the professor started her lesson waving her wand a few time to configure a blackboard and some notes.

-

As the class finished up Bellatrix hung back, she wanted to see if the professor would give her words, as she heard them, any real effect. Seeing the last of her classmates leave the room she heard the familiar noise of the door scraping over the floor. Keeping her eye on her as she was sitting at the desk there was no real movement till the soft ‘duff’ of the door resonated throughout the room. For a moment there was silence.

“Miss Black can I help you with anything.”

“Professor I’m sure you can help me with some things,” she said as she approached the front of the class again. Walking around the side of the desk she placed her hands on the back of her chair and the desk. Formally blocking her in she took another look at her, she could swear that every time she approached her she noticed another fun detail that she could put her focus into if she wasn’t trying to settle on the older woman's lap.

As she settled on the lap she noticed that while they had never even been in the same room before the day that was happening right now they seemed to fit together like two pieces of a shattered mirror. As she repositioned herself she was now straddling her professors middle and honestly was having the time of her life, looking down she saw that her hands were now placed on the top of her legs.

“Anything you want me to help with in particular?” she asked as the first real question that had been posed to her.

“I’ll show you what I’m having trouble with, that might be easier…”  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be continued


End file.
